Danny Welbeck played his first game in nearly 10 months by completing 60 minutes for Arsenal's under-21s on Friday as he closes in on a full comeback.
Welbeck started in the 4-1 win over Brighton but didn't score before being substituted on the hour for Josh Dasilva with the score at 3-0.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said earlier on Friday that Welbeck was still about three weeks away from playing for the senior team and needs a couple of more training games to get back to full match fitness.
The forward has been sidelined since sustaining a knee injury in April.
"He hasn't played for 10 months basically, so we need to be a bit patient with him," Wenger said. "He has a good basic fitness, but after it's about competitiveness, decision making. And he has to get used to that again. But I think in the next three weeks he should be available."
Welbeck is the latest Arsenal player to make an injury comeback with the U21s, after Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky both did so last month. Rosicky then sustained a new injury after coming on as a substitute against Burnley in the FA Cup last weekend, and faces another injury layoff of up to three months.
Welbeck still hopes to play a part in Arsenal's Premier League title push, and could still have time to make England manager Roy Hodgson's Euro 2016 squad if his recovery stays on track. Though Hodgson has previously said he wants players back fit well before the end of the season in order to be considered for the tournament.
Aside from Rosicky, Arsenal now only have Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla out with injuries.