Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is out of Saturday’s Premier League title-deciding fixture against reigning champions Manchester City after suffering an ankle injury during an international fixture between Norway and Austria.
Initially, Odegaard was expected to miss a few weeks, but, now, he is set to miss more time due to the injury after scans revealed actual ligament damage in his left ankle.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, Odegaard will now miss eight weeks with the injury, meaning he is now expected to be out until after Nov. 23 when Arsenal face one of the other best defenses in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest.
It’s a huge blow for Arsenal, as Odegaard is one of the team’s two best players alongside right winger Bukayo Saka, and now the Gunners have to keep up the pace with Man City, who will have their injured playmaker Kevin De Bruyne back soon, without their leader.
Arsenal will miss Odegaard for several key games after the Manchester City battle, as they will face PSG and Inter Milan in the Champions League, as well as Liverpool, Newcastle, and Chelsea in the Premier League.
A conservative estimate should put Odegaard for a return on Nov. 30 against a tough Premier League side in West Ham. Until then, the key will be hoping that players like Kai Havertz step up in a playmaking role – or even Gabriel Jesus linking things together in the middle at center forward.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.