Arsenal loanee makes injury comeback but others remain absent

Ismeal Kabia returned from injury and Will Sweet played his first game post-loan extension, but it wasn’t all good news from Arsenal’s loanees on Saturday.

Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images

Arsenal loanee Ismeal Kabia recently suffered an injury setback that ended a 32-game run of appearances for Shrewsbury Town, as he was forced to sit out of games against Accrington Stanley and Salford City.

The good news is that Kabia was back in the squad against Walsall on Saturday, and he made it off the bench for his 33rd Shrewsbury appearance in the second half.

Unfortunately, Kabia was introduced with Walsall already 2-1 up, and Shrewsbury were subsequently reduced to 10 men after a red card to Josh Ruffels. So it wasn’t the ideal game to make a comeback in.

All the same, things are looking pretty rosy for the club right now. Kabia joined a Shrewsbury side sitting 23rd in League Two five games in and at serious risk of back-to-back relegations, but they’re now 17th and 11 points clear of the drop with 11 games to play.

Photo via @DaggersFCOfficial on Instagram

In another bit of good news from Saturday’s fixtures, Will Sweet made his first appearance for Dagenham & Redbridge following his loan extension earlier in the day.

The centre-back made a start against AFC Totton on Saturday, his third start since his initial loan spell began just over a month ago.

Yet there were more disappointing updates from elsewhere in Arsenal’s loan group. Karl Hein was an unused substitute for Werder Bremen for the 18th game in a row, and Louie Copley remains absent for Crawley Town with an ankle injury.

Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images

On top of that, there was no explanation provided for why Reiss Nelson wasn’t included in the squad for Brentford’s game away to Burnley.

Whether the reasoning for that was an injury setback or simply that he’s not in favour, it’s bad news either way.

Nelson’s last Premier League appearance was on January 7th, and he’s either been an unused substitute or left out of the squad in the seven games since. He’s still yet to start a single league match for Brentford.