Norway boss Stale Solbakken has eased fears over Martin Odegaard’s injury, but has suggested the Arsenal star will miss more games this month.
The Gunners captain has been forced to deal with various issues this season having also missed three months of the 2024-25 campaign with a serious ankle injury.
This term, Odegaard has suffered with shoulder, muscle and knee issues which have seen him miss 17 games in total for his club.
A knee problem was again the issue in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Brentford in February with Odegaard missing the next two games against Wigan Athletic and Wolves.
He made a brief return off the bench in the final 13 minutes of the north London derby against Tottenham.
But Odegaard has been missing again in Arsenal’s last two games – victories over Chelsea and Brighton – and remains a doubt for this weekend’s FA Cup clash with Mansfield Town.
Arsenal are still fighting on four fronts this season and after FA Cup action this weekend they head to Bayer Leverkusen for the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie.
Your football fix
Metro's Head of Sport James Goldman delivers punchy analysis, transfer talk and his take on the week's biggest stories direct to your inbox every week.
Sign up here, it's an open goal.
Mikel Arteta’s side then host Everton before Leverkusen travel to north London for the return leg. The first silverware of the season will then be decided on 22 March with Arsenal and Manchester City colliding in the Carabao Cup final.
While Solbakken believes Odegaard will be back in time for the season run-in, he comments suggest the Arsenal captain could remain a doubt for the rest of March.
‘There is nothing serious about Martin,’ the Norway boss told Viaplay.
‘The most important thing is that he recovers completely and is good for us in the summer.
‘For those of us who care about the World Cup, it’s not a disaster that he’s getting some breaks now.
‘He’s going to rebuild and be crucial for Arsenal in April-May and maybe late March.’
Arsenal will hope to have Odegaard back as soon as possible with midfield options already being stretched with Mikel Merino out of the season.
Elsewhere, William Saliba picked up a knock that ruled him out of the Brighton game midweek.
No comments:
Post a Comment