Arsenal suffer fresh Martin Odegaard injury setback; club learn new potential return date of 25-year-old star - Reports
Arsenal have suffered a big injury blow with Martin Odegaard reportedly ruled out until December. The Gunners captain is said to have suffered a setback in his recovery process and could miss more matches than expected.
As per a report in Football London, Odegaard was previously expected back in November but is now set to stay on the sidelines for another month. The Norwegian suffered an injury while on international duty with Norway in September and has been out since.
He sent an update to the Arsenal fans earlier this month, stating he was doing well in rehab. The Gunners captain hoped to be back soon, saying:
"I just wanted to start with the latest on my injury and rehab. In the last week or so I've made really good progress. I'm getting better and better by the day and feel it's going well. When you feel like things are moving forward, it gives you motivation to do more and more, and work harder. Today is our last game before another international break, so that gives me some more time to work on the rehab, too. Hopefully it won't be much longer; I think we will know more as soon as I get out on the training pitches and we see how my ankle responds to that. At the moment it's progressing well and it looks better than we were thinking, but we've still got to take every day as it comes."
Arsenal are currently third in the Premier League table with 17 points from their opening seven matches.
Mikel Arteta's last update on Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard
Mikel Arteta gave an update on Martin Odegaard's injury in September, commenting that the scans showed more damage than first thought. He had revealed that the club captain was going to be out for a few weeks but hoped that he'd be back sooner.
He said (via BBC):
"The scan showed some damage around the ligaments in the ankle so we are going to miss him. It's something quite significant so we are going to lose him for a while. Hopefully not months."
"He's our captain. He's been one of the biggest and best players in our team. Our identity is very linked to how he plays and behaves. It's a big test for the team to see how able we are to show a different face," he added.
Arsenal are now sweating on the fitness of Bukayo Saka as well after the Englishman limped off in the Three Lions' recent loss to Greece. The Gunners also have Kai Havertz on the sidelines, who pulled out of the Germany squad this month.