Mikel Arteta offers recovery timeline on Martin Odegaard’s injury
Mikel Arteta offers recovery timeline on Martin Odegaard’s injury. Arsenal’s head coach Mikel Arteta has confirmed captain Martin Odegaard would be facing a long spell on the sidelines following scans on his ankle injury.
Odegaard got injured while on international duty, and the Norway team doctor had initially revealed it would take at least three weeks for the Gunners captain to recover, but with that timeline only likely to increase if more in-depth scans revealed further damage.
While Arteta stopped short of putting a concrete time frame on Odegaard’s return, he admitted he does not expect to see his captain for the foreseeable future.
“After everything was scanned, the scan showed he has got some damage, especially on one of the ligaments in the ankle, we are going to miss him”, Arteta said.
“I don’t want to [give a timeline] because I am not a doctor but yes, it is something quite significant so we are going to lose him for a while. Hopefully not months, but let’s see.”
Odegaard has missed just five Premier League games since joining Arsenal three years ago, but will now have double that tally at the very least, with Arteta warning his side they must adapt to life without the 25-year-old quickly.
“He is our captain, he is one of our biggest players without a doubt,”
Arteta has explained.
“He has been one of the most consistent players in the last two or three seasons.
“Our identity is very related to his way of playing and his way of behaving. We are going to have to deal with that.
That is a great test for the team as well, of how capable we are to show maybe a different face and the fact we have other players and other options that can still be very effective.”
Arsenal travel to face Atalanta in their Champions League opener on Thursday evening, before returning to Premier League action with a huge game away at Manchester City on Sunday.
Paris Saint-Germain, Inter, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Chelsea are all on the schedule over the next six weeks.
