Arsenal have allowed Emmanuel Adebayor to join up with the Togo squad before their World Cup qualifier against Cameroon on Saturday on the understanding that the striker, who has been absent for six weeks with a hamstring injury, will not play any part in the game.

Arsène Wenger remains hopeful that Adebayor could be fit for the club's next Premier League match, against Manchester City on 4 April, having done without last season's leading goalscorer since he pulled up during the 0-0 draw at Tottenham Hotspur on 8 February. The 25-year-old has been in rehabilitation since and is nearing fitness, though the inclusion of the African footballer of the year in Togo's 25-man party for the game in Accra, Ghana, still came as something of a surprise.

The Premier League club have received assurances, however, that Adebayor will not play in the match but was anxious to see it and be with his international team-mates, having scored four goals in four matches in the first phase of African World Cup qualifying. He is expected back at training in London Colney next week to continue fitness work before the meeting with City at the Emirates Stadium, in which Arsenal will attempt to extend their unbeaten league run to 17 matches.

Wenger's side should also be bolstered by the return of Theo Walcott either for that game or for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Villarreal three days later. The England winger, recently recovered from shoulder surgery, sustained a freak knee injury in training last week after his right leg locked as he left the pitch. Wenger originally feared Walcott could be out for up to five weeks but scans have since revealed that the problem was not as serious as first feared. "The scan [on Friday] was reassuring," said Wenger. "We will have another scan to see if that is confirmed. We were a little bit worried about cartilage or even the cruciate but there was none of that."