Martin Odegaard will be pushing to return against Manchester City this weekend with the Arsenal captain expected to swiftly recover from his latest shoulder injury.
The Norway international was forced off in the first-half of Saturday’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest after a collision involving teammate Jurrien Timber and Morgan Gibbs-White.
Odegaard landed heavily on his left shoulder and hwas seen in real discomfort as Arsenal’s medical staff tended to him before he was replaced by Ethan Nwaneri.
It was the second time the Gunners captain has been forced off in the first-half this season having also been replaced with a shoulder issue early on against Leeds United in August. After the victory over Forest, Mikel Arteta confirmed it was the same shoulder his skipper had injured.
Odegaard was not in training on Monday and missed Arsenal’s Champions League opener away to Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday night.
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While Arteta was quick to suggest the midfielder is unlikely to need surgery, two similar injuries in the space of three weeks have raised concerns.
But while Arsenal may opt to take necessary precautions, the timeline for Odegaard’s recovery is not a significant one.
Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, ruled out the possibility of a serious long-term issue such a broken collarbone, identifying Odegaard’s issue as a acromioclavicular ligament issue.
Believing it to be a ‘low grade’ issue, Odegaard’s recovery period stands at seven to 14 days and could be back in training this week ahead of the visit of Pep Guardiola’s side.
‘It looked mostly like an AC (acromioclavicular) injury. It is much more typical in rugby,’ Smith told Metro.
‘Where your collarbone meets your shoulder girdle, there is a small ligament there which binds that all together. When you fall down onto your shoulder, that can get separated.
‘He was probably still having some minor discomfort (from when it happened the first time) but be well able to play football. He is not running into people like in rugby of other sports, he’s not pushing off people using his arms.
‘Like with any ligament injury, he will either have a small amount of fibre disruption where it would be a grade 1. If there is a decent amount and there is lots of separation, it is grade 2 and if it was much worse than that, a grade 3, we would be talking about going in and having surgery. From the commentary we have heard [from Arsenal] they are not concerned at all about that
‘Typical timelines for injuries like that, I would expect that is on the lower grade so a period of 10 to 14 days or even seven to 14 days off the back of that fall. Maybe faster if he didn’t exacerbate things too badly.’
Five days on from when the injury was initially suffered, Smith believes Odegaard will be back among the group soon although the club do have options when it comes to taking further precautions.
‘They will also want to protect him, they do have the option to give that collarbone some support with some strapping to take the pressure of it,’ Smith explained.
‘There may be times when he is in non-contact training when they want him to avoid any physical contact against that shoulder. What you will often see is team in training and this player will wear a different colour bib so they know not to give him a shove. They may do things like that but I would expect he will be back doing the vast majority of activities as long as there is not too much pain associated with it.’
Arsenal have been hit by a number of injury problems in the early stages of the season with Bukayo Saka still recovering from a hamstring injury that forced him off against Leeds in his side’s second game of the season.
Kai Havertz is also sidelined following minor knee surgery while William Saliba has missed his side’s last two games after picking up an ankle sprain before the Liverpool game.
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