Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will breath a sigh of relief at the news the hamstring injury Mohamed Salah suffered at the Africa Cup of Nations is only a strain and nothing more significant.

Salah sparked fears of a potentially lengthy lay-off after limping off in the first half of Thursday’s 2-2 draw with Ghana.

However, the results of a scan have revealed a muscle strain which Egypt say will rule the Liverpool striker out of their next two games.

That means the 31-year-old will definitely miss Egypt’s final Group B fixture against already-qualified Cape Verde on Monday and, if they progress from Group B, their last-16 tie as well.

“The X-rays that Mohamed Salah, the captain of the Egyptian national team, underwent, showed that he suffered a hamstring strain,” an Egyptian Football Association statement read.

“And he will miss the team’s next two matches in the Africa Cup of Nations against Cape Verde, and then the round of 16 match in the event of qualification.”

Egypt are currently second in Group B after two draws with Mozambique and Ghana and will face leaders Cape Verde knowing only a victory will guarantee their passage into the knockout stages.

Salah will be restricted to a watching role and it could also be the case for a potential last-16 tie at the end of January, but Liverpool manager Klopp will be pleased the injury to his forward is not set to be a long-term issue.

Earlier on Friday, Klopp had earlier admitted his shock at Salah’s injury taking into account the forward’s impeccable fitness record.

In six and a half seasons since arriving at Anfield, Salah has missed just 10 Premier League matches – one of which was due to Covid-19 and another because of concussion.

So the sight of Salah being forced off just before half-time unsurprisingly set alarm bells ringing.

“In the moment it was a shock. He felt it and we all know how rarely Mo needs to go off so there was definitely something,” said Klopp.

“I don’t have any more information right now. I spoke with him last night. They are doing further assessments and then we will know more.”

While Liverpool did not expect Salah to return until early next month, any absence from their talisman would be a blow as they seek to maintain top spot in the Premier League.

They head to Bournemouth on Sunday looking to extend their advantage to five points but will do so without a number of players.

Wataru Endo is at the Asian Cup with Japan while full-backs Andy Robertson (shoulder), Trent Alexander-Arnold (knee) and Kostas Tsimikas (collarbone), midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai (hamstring), Thiago Alcantara (hip), Stefan Bajcetic (adductor) and Ben Doak (knee) and defender Joel Matip (ACL) are all at various stages in their recovery.

Robertson, Alexander-Arnold and Szoboszlai are closest to a return but the earliest will be Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Fulham.

“They’re all positive but not ready. They’re all getting closer and closer and closer and some of them might be in team training next week but for the Bournemouth game I don’t expect anyone back,” said Klopp.

“After Bournemouth maybe for Fulham we will see how the boys do, but they are all close. Trent close, Dom close, Robbo close.”

Egypt have allayed serious injury fears over Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah, but their captain’s Africa Cup of Nations could still be over.

Salah was forced off in the first half of Egypt’s 2-2 draw with Ghana on Thursday after he sustained a muscle injury and it sparked concerns from both an international and club football point of view.

Salah was sent for scans and the results have shown a strain in his posterior muscle, which is set to rule the forward out of Egypt’s final Group B fixture and a potential last-16 tie for a nation that finished runners-up in the 2021 edition.

“The x-rays that Mohamed Salah, the captain of the Egyptian national team, underwent, showed that he suffered a strain in the posterior muscle,” an Egyptian Football Association statement read.

“And he will miss the team’s next two matches in the African Nations against Cape Verde, and then the round of 16 match in the event of qualification.”

Egypt are currently second in Group B after two draws with Mozambique and Ghana and will face leaders Cape Verde on January 22 knowing only a victory will guarantee their passage into the knockout stages.

Salah will be restricted to a watching role and it could also be the case for a potential last-16 tie at the end of January, but Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will breath a sigh of relief at the news the injury to his forward is only a strain and nothing more significant.

Sheffield United’s loan swoop for Mason Holgate has collapsed after Everton’s last-minute demand for a bigger fee.

The Toffees wanted the Blades to pay £250,000 after it was agreed the defender’s loan at Southampton would be cancelled and he would move to Bramall Lane, the PA news agency understands.

United had also agreed to cover a portion of the 27-year-old’s wages but fourth-bottom Everton wanted a late payment as the Blades are Premier League relegation rivals.

It saw the deal fall through – despite Holgate travelling to Yorkshire for a medical – and it remains to be seen if the move can be resurrected.

He remains at St Mary’s, although Southampton are open to cancelling his loan this month.

Holgate has only made six appearances for the Saints this season and has not featured in the Sky Bet Championship since October, with Russell Martin’s side on a record-equalling 20-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

Blades boss Chris Wilder revealed his frustrations at failing to make any further additions before they host West Ham on Sunday.

They have only signed Ben Brereton Diaz on loan from Villarreal in their battle against relegation, with the club bottom on just nine points.

Wilder says he would not have asked his board for reinforcements if he thought there was no chance of avoiding the drop.

“Hopefully a couple more before the window shuts will make us stronger,” Wilder said. “We will be in a better place when the window shuts.

“We are quite frustrated because we felt we could have got them in for the weekend, the deadline was 12pm today but we have worked very hard in identifying a couple of potential signings coming in before next week.

“I always knew it wasn’t going to be a huge window in terms of big numbers coming in. Two or three was the targeted number and I believe we will reach the targets.

“I wouldn’t have asked the club to make those decisions if I didn’t think there was any fight left in us.

“There is definitely a huge fight left in myself and I have seen that in the players. If I didn’t think that I would say to the board, ‘Keep your powder dry and we’ll plan for another season in a different division’.

“That might still happen but it won’t be through a lack of fight and commitment.”

Blades skipper Anel Ahmedhodzic has been linked with a move to Napoli, but Wilder says there has been no bid.

“I have spoken to Anel about it, he is a grounded individual and he loves playing for Sheffield United,” he said. “I don’t think speculation is a bad thing.

“You’d rather be talked about than not talked about. It is speculation, I have not been told from above that there is a potential deal in the offing, it is noise.”

Marseille striker Ismaila Sarr starred as defending Africa Cup of Nations champions Senegal eased their way into the last 16 with a 3-1 win over Cameroon.

Sarr’s deflected strike gave his side a 16th-minute lead and it was he who set up fellow frontman Habib Diallo after the break before Sadio Mane cemented victory at Stade Charles Konan Banny in stoppage time to guarantee his side’s progression from Group C.

Cameroon responded belatedly when Jean-Charles Castelletto powered home a header from Olivier Ntcham’s 83rd-minute cross and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou has guilty of a glaring miss before Mane scored, but Rigobert Song’s men will head into Tuesday’s final group fixture against Gambia with just a single point to their name.

Senegal went ahead after the Cameroon defence failed to deal with Pape Sarr’s 16th-minute corner.

The ball was fed back in to Sarr after goalkeeper Andre Onana had punched it to the edge of the box and he drilled in a low right-footed shot which took a slight deflection off Frank Anguissa and flew into the net.

The Indomitable Lions did not muster a single attempt on goal in the opening 45 minutes and might have fallen further behind six minutes before the break but for Enzo Tchato’s block after Lamine Camara had put Mane in on goal.

Aliou Cisse’s men continued to make the running after the restart, but Olivier Kemen got a sight of goal at the other end, only to loop his 55th-minute header from a deep free-kick high over.

Cameroon’s fortunes took a further turn for the worse with 19 minutes remaining when Sarr turned provider with a low cross for Habib Diallo to make it 2-0 from close range.

Castelletto gave Song’s side hope with seven minutes remaining and they should have been level when Nkoudou headed inexplicably wide in injury time before Mane wrapped up the points.

Hearts have decided to terminate the season-long loan deal of Rangers midfielder Alex Lowry.

The 20-year-old moved to Tynecastle at the start of August in search of more regular game time but he struggled to nail down a starting berth in Steven Naismith’s team.

Lowry made 17 appearances in total for the Jambos but only 12 as a starter. His best moment in a maroon jersey came in late September when he scored a late winner away to Kilmarnock in the Viaplay Cup.

The Ibrox academy graduate, who has been troubled by a back issue recently, started only two of Hearts’ last eight matches before the winter break.

The Tynecastle club were unable to guarantee him the game time he needs to accelerate his development and have taken the decision to send him back to Ibrox prematurely.

“We took the decision to end the loan with Alex’s best interests in mind,” Naismith told Hearts’ website on Friday evening.

“There is absolutely no doubting Alex’s talents as a player and he’s shown in periods what he’s capable of doing on the pitch.

“But with the competition for places fierce in our squad, he’s probably not going to get the game time that would allow him to develop further, which is one of the reasons he was here in the first place.

“I’ve no doubt he’ll go on to become a top player. He’s a great boy, we thank him for all his efforts at Hearts and wish him well for the future.”

Rangers are now likely to look for another club for Lowry to join for the remainder of the campaign.

The midfielder made a big impact when he burst into the Rangers first team under Giovanni Van Bronckhorst two years ago and he was rewarded in May 2022 with a new contract until the summer of 2025, but so far he has failed to kick on the way the Ibrox club hoped.

Mauritania boss Amir Abdou feels his players will not be downhearted by the “injustice” of their opening Africa Cup of Nations defeat when they come up against Angola.

The Lions of Chinguetti lost 1-0 to Burkina Faso in heartbreaking fashion as Bertrand Traore’s penalty in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage-time condemned them to a Group D defeat.

“It was a bit of injustice to us as the boys gave everything, they followed instructions,” head coach Abdou said ahead of Mauritania’s second group game in Bouake.

“Our performance dropped in the second half because of the heat and there was a lot of suffering.

“We are not going to slumber in sorrow. We need to move on from this and prepare ourselves for the next game, which is against Angola.”

Angola began their AFCON campaign with a 1-1 draw against two-time winners Algeria, extending their unbeaten run to six games.

Head coach Pedro Goncalves said: “This team started slowly but we managed to find some spaces and came back into the game in the second half, which the team did better.

“The work isn’t done. The team showed that mentally they are up there so we will continue to build on this in our next matches.”

Mauritania, who are without a win in five games, could be without Aboubakar Kamara.

The former Fulham striker, who now plays for Al Jazira in the UAE Pro League, had to be replaced after 28 minutes against Burkina Faso after sustaining an injury.

Angola could hand a start to Mabululu after the striker came off the bench to score against Algeria.

Franz Beckenbauer was described as a “role model for many generations” as Bayern Munich paid an emotional final farewell to their club great in a memorial service at the Allianz Arena on Friday.

Former West Germany captain and manager Beckenbauer died on January 7 at the age of 78, prompting tributes throughout the world of football for the man known as ‘Der Kaiser’ – The Emperor.

Munich-born Beckenbauer captained Bayern to three successive European Cup triumphs from 1974, and is one of only three men to have won the World Cup as both player and manager, lifting the trophy in 1974 and 1990.

Comfortable as an attacking sweeper or dominant midfielder, Beckenbauer was widely recognised as one of the best players in the history of the game and won the Ballon d’Or in 1972 and 1976.

Beckenbauer had been laid to rest alongside his parents at the Perlacher Forest cemetery in Munich.

Around 20,000 fans attended Friday’s memorial service, along with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and national team coach Julian Nagelsmann.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino and UEFA counterpart Aleksander Ceferin were also among the guests, while leading European clubs were represented by the likes of Barcelona’s Joan Laporta, Paris St Germain’s Nasser Al-Khelaifi as well as Real Madrid’s honorary president Jose Martinez Pirri.

Alex Stepney fronted Manchester United’s delegation, having earlier visited Manchesterplatz in Trudering-Riem, the site of the 1958 Munich Air Disaster, to lay a wreath for his former team-mate Sir Bobby Charlton and their great on-pitch rival Beckenbauer.

Wreaths, including from Barcelona and Liverpool, were laid around a black-and-white picture of Beckenbauer in the centre circle at Bayern’s Allianz Arena home.

Lothar Matthaeus, captain of the 1990 World Cup-winning squad, Paul Breitner and Berti Vogts, team-mates from 1974, were among the players who paid their respects on the pitch, along with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the former Bayern chief executive and close friend of Beckenbauer.

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann sang the Italian version of “Time to Say Goodbye” before Bayern president Herbert Hainer addressed the crowd.

“Franz was a friend to everyone, from his heart. That’s what made him this unique personality. He would have been pleased that so many people have come today,” Hainer said in his speech.

“A Munich child who became a world citizen. He was taught from a young age that every person is equal. He exemplified that value – always and everywhere.

“A role model for many generations. Wherever he went, Franz treated everyone the same way. Always a nice word, always an open ear – that was his gift.”

Hainer added: “This is FC Bayern’s home and this will always be Franz’s home, too. FC Bayern will always remain the Kaiser’s empire.

“Dear Franz, we’re immeasurably grateful for everything. You’ll remain in our hearts and in our play for all time.”

Bayern’s honorary president Uli Hoeness paid an emotional tribute to his old friend as the ceremony was brought to a close.

“We played together for many years, we won a huge amount and lost the odd game too,” he said.

“If I didn’t know what to do with the ball, I knew it was safe with Franz.”

Hoeness added: “If you had a problem, you went to Franz. That was one of his most important characteristics.

“You could learn a lot from Franz not just on the pitch, but a lot off it too.”

Cardiff have expressed their determination to “seek justice” and pursue their negligence claim against Nantes as the fifth anniversary of Emiliano Sala’s death approaches.

Sala died on January 21, 2019 when the light aircraft he was travelling in from France crashed into the English Channel, two days after Cardiff had announced the signing of the 28-year-old Argentinian forward from Nantes.

Cardiff were ordered by football’s global governing body FIFA to pay the £15million transfer fee after maintaining Nantes must be held accountable for the accident which led to Sala’s death, saying the flight was organised by the French club’s agent.

The Sky Bet Championship club have lodged a negligence claim in the French courts against Nantes.

“As we approach the fifth anniversary of the loss of Emiliano Sala this Sunday, our thoughts are with his family and friends,” read a Cardiff statement published on the official club website.

“We are determined to seek justice and bring our claim against FC Nantes to a conclusion, so that the rights and wrongs of those involved can be scrutinised.

“In particular, we seek answers on the involvement of unauthorised football agents in the transfer.

“Independent steps have already been taken by the prosecutor in France to hold FC Nantes accountable for its use of unauthorised football agents, resulting in an indictment.”

Cape Verde became the first team to qualify for the knockout stages of the Africa Cup of Nations with a 3-0 victory over Mozambique.

Bebe’s extraordinary free-kick and a brace from Ryan Mendes in Abidjan guaranteed that the Blue Sharks will top Group B.

Mozambique now lie bottom of the section with one point ahead of their final group game against Ghana, while Cape Verde meet Egypt on Monday.

Cape Verde, fresh from their shock opening victory over Ghana, impressed from the early exchanges.

Deroy Duarte forced an athletic save from Mozambique goalkeeper Ernan Siluane and the Fortuna Sittard midfielder also sent a diving header just wide of a post.

Bebe crashed a dipping 30-yard free-kick against the crossbar, but the former Manchester United striker was not to be denied from an even greater distance.

There appeared little danger as Bebe stood over a free-kick fully 40 yards out, but his swerving shot bamboozled Siluane who could only palm the ball into the net.

Mozambique caused few alarms until Witi’s tame effort straight at Vozinha, but the Mambas appeared to be handed a route back into the contest five minutes before the break.

Geny Catamo went down under a challenge from two defenders and a penalty was awarded before referee Samir Guezzaz was summoned to the VAR monitor and reversed his decision.

Mendes doubled the Blue Sharks’ advantage after 51 minutes by dispossessing the dawdling Edmilson Dove and firing home from the edge of the box.

Catamo clipped the crossbar with a curling free-kick with Mozambique’s best effort but their hopes were ended in spectacular style.

Mendes was given time and space to tee off from 25 yards, and his thumping drive whistled past Siluane for his 17th international goal and put the seal on a commanding performance.

Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi wants his side to learn lessons from their frustrating opening draw against Angola when they face Burkina Faso at the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday.

The 2019 champions allowed Angola to score a second-half equaliser during a 1-1 draw on Monday in a disappointing start to the tournament, which means they are now without a win in their last four AFCON fixtures – having not win since lifting the trophy with victory over Senegal.

“It was not the result we expected,” Belmadi said. “We were expecting to have three points. We tried our best and didn’t want to lose the game so we did what we can do to get a point which was necessary.

“We were supposed to do better in the second half, but we can also talk about the moments we did well.

“We have identified our weakness as we didn’t defend very well for us to concede the penalty which was a big mistake. We are in a transitional period so we try for this team to work together and we have also learnt lessons from this game for our remaining games.

“We made some technical mistakes, but it’s not professional to start a tournament with the mindset of a loser so we will prepare for the match against Burkina Faso to put things right.”

Burkina Faso enjoyed an excellent start to the tournament with a 1-0 win over Mauritania on Tuesday courtesy of Bertrand Traore’s late penalty and they, are looking to win consecutive games for just a third time in their history and the first time since 2017.

AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli has admitted his side must strengthen in the January transfer window if they are to chase down leading duo Inter Milan and Juventus in Serie A.

Milan head to struggling Udinese on Saturday looking to close a seven-point deficit to second-placed Juve, and with Pioli eyeing reinforcements in defence and midfield.

“Our decisions don’t change and the club are working on it. There are two weeks remaining,” he said.

Pioli pointed out the need for a “complete” defender, saying any new recruit would need to be able to help with build-up play from the back.

Milan have improved defensively since Simon Kjaer returned from injury, but the Denmark centre-half’s future is uncertain with his contract due to expire in the summer – perhaps a contributing factor in their search for a new defender.

“Simon is a leader,” Pioli said. “He knows what to say and he takes position. But for all of us, it’s too early to speak about the future.”

Udinese claimed a 1-0 win over Milan at San Siro in November, one of only two games they have won all season, and Pioli is determined to avoid a repeat.

“Only tomorrow’s game counts, not what we did in the past against them,” he said. “We are different teams now. They are in a good moment, but the same is true of us.

“We must be fearless and try to perform at our best. It’s a hard game tomorrow, but we want better results than in the first part of the season. Surely, we’ve had a good week.

“Milan must earn as many points as possible, that’s what we want from every single game. All games are worth three points and we want to take them home tomorrow.”

Reserve goalkeeper Marco Sportiello and defender Alessandro Florenzi have returned to training after injury, but Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Pierre Kalulu all remain out while Ismael Bennacer and Samuel Chukwueze are at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Udinese sit only one point above the relegation zone, but have taken four points from their last three games to offer some hope amid a miserable run.

It could have been better, but last weekend they conceded a late penalty in a 2-2 draw with Fiorentina, the seventh time this season they have lost a lead – having dropped 14 points from winning positions.

With away games against Atalanta and Juventus to come, things will not get any easier so coach Gabriele Cioffi would love what would be a third straight win over Milan.

Martin Payero could return from the muscle problem that kept him sidleined against Fiorentina, but Gerard Deulofeu, Jaka Bijol and Enzo Ebosse remain out.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is unaware of any concrete interest in Matt O’Riley and believes the midfielder is happy to continue improving in his team.

Reports claim Spanish league leaders Girona are considering making a move for the Denmark international ahead of the transfer deadline.

But the 23-year-old signed a new contract earlier in the season that ties him to Glasgow until 2027 and appears focused on his game.

Rodgers said: “I’m not aware of any (interest). But it’s natural, if you’ve got good players then of course they will attract attention. But I’m not focused on that at all.

“We don’t want to be losing any (of our best players). The plan was to add to the squad and that’s still the plan.

“If a player doesn’t want to be here then my experience is you are better off moving them on. It’s as simple as that.

“Of course the club is in a really strong position with no need to sell and no thoughts of selling.

“Matt is really, really happy here. He signed a new deal, he has really progressed, he is into double figures now in goals, and his assists are there.

“For him as a young player, he is a brilliant professional, all he wants to do is improve and he can see the improvement here. Just take it day by day and assess it from there.”

In terms of incomings, Rodgers was looking for quality rather than quantity this month and believes he has added that in former Ajax and Bayern Munich reserve winger Nicolas Kuhn.

“There’s a lot of work going on and hopefully before the window shuts, we can improve the squad,” he said.

“It normally goes right through to the end. I am quite relaxed on it. I know what we need to improve but unless it’s the right type of quality and player then we won’t be in a rush to do anything.

“And likewise if something comes in too late that doesn’t suit the squad and how strong we are then we won’t need to do anything.

“If it was just about numbers we could have had people in on January 1, but it’s not. It’s about getting quality in and that can take time.

“Nicolas has had that big-club experience before. He is a very talented player. Now he is at an age where he has done very well with Rapid Vienna and can make that next step.

“He fits the profile in terms of how we work – he is super quick, direct, dynamic and we feel we can continually improve his game.

Neither Kuhn nor Cameron Carter-Vickers, who is on his way back from a hamstring strain, will play in Sunday’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup fourth-round tie against Buckie Thistle.

Rodgers said: “Nic won’t be involved at the weekend. He had actually been quite a period out. He had an operation on his teeth so he lost a bit of strength. But he will be okay for Ross County.

“Cam won’t be involved this weekend but by Ross County he will be fine.

“He has been out on the field for a little while. It’s been a frustrating period for him in the opening part of the season, he has picked up some niggles on the back of not having a full pre-season. But we are really hoping he can stay fit and strong for the second part.”

Jordan Henderson hinted at regrets over his move to Saudi Arabia as he was formally unveiled as an Ajax player on Friday.

The former Liverpool captain quit Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Ettifaq this week less than six months into a lucrative three-year deal.

The 33-year-old has faced fierce criticism over his career choices since last summer and, for the first time, he came close to admitting an error as he was presented at a press conference in Amsterdam.

“In life if you want to call them regrets or mistakes, you can call them that,” Henderson said at a press conference in Amsterdam. “But, at the same time, they’re only mistakes if you don’t learn from them.

“Looking back, at the time, obviously it was a big decision. It was a decision I felt was right for me and my family at the time, but things happen. Things change quickly in football.

“I had to make another decision and this is the one I felt was right decision for me. I felt the opportunity was too big to turn down, playing at this great football club.”

The failure of Henderson’s move to Saudi Arabia has not only negatively affected his reputation but also that of the country’s football league.

Henderson did not criticise the standard of the competition or the lifestyle he has experienced in recent months, but neither did he offer a ringing endorsement to any other players weighing up a switch.

Henderson, who has signed a two-and-a-half year deal at Ajax, said: “I would definitely not sit here and speak badly of the league or the clubs or anything like that. I’ve got full respect for the opportunity that I was given to go there.

“But everyone’s different. You look at people who are there, big players who are there now, who are loving every second of it, staying there for a long period of time.

“But you might get others that don’t settle or something happens in their private life, whatever it may be, and things change quickly.”

On his decision to leave, he added: “It had nothing to do with anything else other than a football decision. I felt it was a perfect opportunity for me to come to such a huge club.”

Having previously been a strong advocate of LGBTQ+ rights, Henderson was widely condemned for moving to Saudi Arabia, where same-sex relationships are illegal.

The huge wages he was reportedly offered also brought criticism he was putting money before morals.

He was booed by England supporters when he returned home to play for the international side last autumn.

The midfielder concedes that whole experience has been a bruising one.

“I’m not going to say I haven’t been hurt,” he said. “I understand it, but I do care. People might think I don’t but I actually do care about other people.

“I do think a lot about football and how I treat other people and have respect for other people. So it does hurt, of course, but at the same time I totally respect their opinions and how they view me as a person.

“I just had to obviously take it on the chin and that’s all I’ve continued to do. I’ve never tried to hurt anybody. That was never my intention, ever.

“If people feel a type of way towards me then all I can do is apologise for that. I’m hurt but it’s part and parcel of life and football.

“It makes you stronger and I just want to concentrate on getting back to playing football with Ajax and doing my best for this football club.”

Henderson will not be eligible to make his Ajax debut at home to RKC Waalwijk this weekend as he awaits a work permit but he is eager to get started.

He said: “I’ll eat, breathe and sleep Ajax and dedicate myself every single day, every single session to try to be better and help this team and this club be better.”

Mikel Arteta insists Emile Smith Rowe is settled at Arsenal amid reported interest from West Ham.

Smith Rowe has endured a frustrating time since he hit 10 goals in the 2021-22 campaign, with groin surgery restricting his role in the club’s unsuccessful title challenge last season.

England international Smith Rowe has also struggled with a knee issue this term, but even when he has been fit the 23-year-old has been reduced to cameo appearances with only one Premier League start among 12 outings in all competitions.

West Ham have reportedly made an approach to sign Smith Rowe on loan but Arteta played down talk the academy graduate could leave this month ahead of Saturday’s visit of Crystal Palace.

Arteta said: “I’m really happy with Emile. He’s in the right trajectory.

“Now, he’s settled, he’s training really well and you know I’m not going to talk about individual situations.

“Emile is Emile. We know he’s got incredible qualities and we’re really happy to have him.

“What he needs now is chances to put all the desire and quality that he has on the pitch. In order to do that we have to give him minutes.”

Chances have been few and far between for Smith Rowe in recent weeks despite Arsenal struggling to match their consistency from the opening months of the season.

An FA Cup defeat to Liverpool on January 7 made it three losses in a row and one victory from their last seven matches, but the players have returned from a warm-weather training camp in Dubai “fully recharged” according to their manager.

“We are recharged, full of energy and super motivated so we want to attack the second half of the season with a lot of ambition and the understanding that the team is capable of big things. They are convinced of that,” Arteta added.

“It was a phenomenal camp. We recharged our batteries and the context of the environment, in the beautiful weather, helps. The togetherness and moments we shared together were great, so yeah we’re fully recharged.”

Goals have been an issue for Arsenal during this poor seven-match run with only five goals scored in that period, but Arteta reiterated they would not move for a striker in the January transfer window.

“No, because I love the players that we have,” he insisted.

Arteta was also coy over Arsenal’s list of absentees, with Oleksandr Zinchenko (foot) and Gabriel Jesus (knee) notable absentees for the defeat to Liverpool before Arsenal’s mid-season break.

“Individually, I am not going to tell you exactly how everyone is,” Arteta explained. “We are touch and go with a few. You will see.”

The Arsenal boss was more forthcoming about the progress of Jurrien Timber, who sustained anterior cruciate ligament damage in August but joined the squad for the training camp.

Arteta revealed: “At the moment he’s still very far from competing. That’s the realistic picture of it.

“Are we hopeful that he could have a realistic impact before the end of the season? If everything goes well, it looks like that might happen. At the moment though it’s too early to make that call.”

Six games in the English Football League this weekend have fallen victim to freezing conditions gripping the UK.

Saturday’s Sky Bet League One matches between Cheltenham and Carlisle and Port Vale and Wycombe were both postponed due to frozen pitches.

League Two games at AFC Wimbledon, Bradford, Mansfield and Swindon were also called off, with temperatures dropping to minus 7C in some parts this week.

“A Football League appointed match official conducted an 11am pitch inspection at the Completely-Suzuki Stadium this morning,” read a Cheltenham club statement on Friday.

“After consultation with the Football League the decision has been made to postpone tomorrow’s fixture.

“The frost covers have been on the pitch all week, but temperatures for the past two nights have fallen so low that a considerable amount of frost has got into the pitch.

“On balance it was felt that temperatures are not forecast to rise high enough to remove the frost before kick-off so the decision has been taken to postpone the match.

“The timing of the decision has also taken into account the considerable journey faced by opponents Carlisle and a desire to inconvenience them as little as possible.”

Wycombe’s fixture at Port Vale also fell later in the day following a pitch inspection.

Mansfield, who quickly announced that Sutton will now visit on Tuesday, said: “Frost covers have been in place on the pitch for 10 days as part of the club’s efforts to protect the pitch from sub zero temperatures as well as industrial hot-air blowers.

“Temperatures in Mansfield, however, have been as low as minus 7C. Following a pitch inspection by an EFL appointed referee the pitch has been deemed unplayable.”

Bradford reported sub-zero temperatures of up to minus 7C this week ahead of their Yorkshire derby with Doncaster, saying areas of the Valley Parade surface had been left frozen.

The Bantams added: “Frost covers, effective to minus 4C, have been covering the pitch since last Friday, with every effort made to host the fixture.”

Wimbledon said of their Plough Lane fixture with Crawley being called off: “Every effort was made to get this game on by our staff, and volunteers helped to cover the playing surface earlier this week to protect against the elements.

“However, the pitch was today deemed to be unplayable with parts of it still frozen.

“Though temperatures are due to increase by mid-morning on Saturday, conditions are still predicted to be low at this time, so there’s no guarantee that the pitch would be playable by 1.45 pm when it’s needed for pre-match.”

Swindon’s home game with Tranmere was also postponed on Friday.