BREAKING: Injured Arsenal’s new signing returns from injury straight to the squad to face Tottenham, set to start against The Spurs
Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard’s injury might not be as severe as initially feared, with early assessments indicating that the damage could be less serious than first thought, Arsenal insider Charles Watts has reported.
The Gunners remain cautiously optimistic that the 25-year-old could be back ‘sooner rather than later’, despite initial expectations of a lengthy layoff.
The 25-year-old injured his ankle in Norway’s 2-1 Nations League win over Austria on Monday and was taken off 67 minutes into the game following a slide tackle from Christoph Baumgartner.
Odegaard was later pictured on crutches as he boarded a plane back to England ahead of the North London derby on Sunday, while Norway head coach Stale Solbakken admitted his injury ‘looked bad’ in the dressing room.
Norway’s team doctor Ola Sand revealed Odegaard could be out for at least three weeks – meaning he would miss five games for Arsenal, including the Champions League opener against Atalanta and a trip to Manchester City on 22 September.
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‘Might not be too bad’
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Watts revealed that ‘there are early suggestions’ Odegaard’s injury might not be as severe as initially thought, and that once the swelling subsides and more detailed scans are conducted, the 25-year-old could make a return to action sooner than expected:
“Sometimes you have to wait for the swelling to really go down when you do the scans to really determine the true extent of the damage.
“But there are suggestions that the early signs when it comes to Odegaard’s injury is that it might not be too bad and Arsenal are pretty hopeful that he could be back sooner rather than later.
“And it might not be the lengthy layoff that many of us were obviously expecting when we saw the pictures of the injury and how he left the field against Austria, but we’ll wait and see.”
