Although Arsenal went top of the Premier League with victory over West Ham United, it was another afternoon to forget for Martin Odegaard as his injury woes continued.
Arteta admits Odegaard injury "not positive"
It was a season of injury woes for Arsenal as a whole last season. So much so that much of their summer spending centred around adding quality in depth to Mikel Arteta’s squad. But whilst that has helped put an end to several concerns, Mikel Arteta still has one major Odegaard concern after the Norwegian left the pitch injured for a third-consecutive game on Saturday afternoon.
It looked as though Arsenal’s summer spending was all coming together against West Ham. Odegaard, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka and Viktor Gyokeres all shared the stage and any concerns that Arteta hadn’t let go of the handbrake seemed destined to end before Odegaard’s injury spoiled the party.
Arteta, as frustrated as anyone, provided an update on the midfielder in his post-match reaction – saying: “With Martin it was a clash, knee to knee. It’s not looking very positive at the moment. Immediately he was uncomfortable. I just spoke to him, he’s not positive about it, he’s got a brace on, we’ll have to wait and see from the doctors.”
Arsenal shared an update on Odegaard on Sunday, revealing he has sustained ‘a medial collateral ligament injury to his left knee’ and has withdrew from international duty with Norway.
The big question will be just how long Odegaard misses. He’s already been forced to sit out of three games in all competitions and an injury expert has now revealed the worst-case scenario for the Arsenal captain following another setback.
Injury expert reveals worst-case Odegaard scenario
Reacting to the injury, injury expert Physio Scout took to X to reveal Odegaard could miss up to six weeks of action with a Grade 2 MCL injury, believing a Grade 3 is unlikely.
The injury expert said: Martin Odegaard UPDATE: Arsenal’s captain has been ruled out of Norway’s upcoming fixtures after sustaining an MCL injury. As noted in our earlier analysis, a valgus stress or direct impact to his knee likely placed excessive load on the medial collateral ligament, leading to the current issue.
Expected Recovery Times: Grade 1: 1–3 weeks, Grade 2: 3-6 weeks, Grade 3: 6-10 weeks+.
A Grade 3 injury appears unlikely here; a Grade 1 or 2 sprain seems more plausible.
Should Odegaard miss six weeks of action, he would miss seven games up until the next November international break, including Champions League fixtures against Atletico Madrid.
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Not an ideal situation, but Arteta and Arsenal have shown they have the squad to cope.