Thomas Partey will stay at Arsenal to rebuild his fitness during the international break after Ghana made a late attempt to call him up.

The midfielder was not initially selected by Ghana due to his recent fitness issues, leaving it late to contact Arsenal, who were without a fixture this weekend, to check on his availability ahead of upcoming friendlies against Nigeria and Uganda in Morocco.

It has been decided that, following his recent injury lay-off, Partey will be best off staying and training in London ahead of Arsenal’s huge Premier League title showdown with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on March 31.

He boosted Arsenal's title bid earlier this month when he returned from a hamstring problem following a four-month lay-off as a substitute against Sheffield United and Brentford. But his return is still being carefully managed.

The Ghanaian FA said that Partey “asked to be excused to gain full fitness following recent injuries.”

Partey also missed the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in January and February due to injury.

In-form leaders Arsenal have close to a clean bill of health ahead of their looming trip to the Etihad, with Brazil initially calling up winger Gabriel Martinelli for high-profile friendly matches against England and Spain, before he withdrew along with City goalkeeper Ederson with a foot issue suffered in the 6-0 win at Sheffield United.

He previously missed Arsenal's 2-1 win over Brentford and the Champions League last-16 second-leg tie against Porto.

Jurrien Timber is also back in full training after knee surgery in August, while Takehiro Tomiyasu was omitted from the Japan squad for their World Cup qualifying double-header against North Korea as he also builds his fitness following a calf injury sustained at the Asian Cup last month.

“Tomi hasn’t played yet. The main reason is that he hasn’t played a match,” said Japan boss Hajime Moriyasu last week.

“We have confirmed that he is definitely recovering and is fit to play. In that sense it might have been possible to call him up and have him play, but we decided first of all that he hasn’t played.

“I think we have to think player first there. The next game will definitely be intense and tough. In a situation where he’s not playing there, of course we might still ask him to play, but this time we decided not to call him up because of the risk of injury and because we haven’t confirmed how much he can play.

“I didn’t call him up, firstly for his own sake and for the sake of his club, because I don’t want the same thing to happen again, and also because I thought that if he showed a solid performance on the Arsenal and Premier League stage, he would naturally become an asset for the national team.”