Martin Odegaard will today return to Arsenal for further assessment on an ankle injury.The 25-year-old had to be helped off the pitch during Norway’s Nations League match against Austria on Monday, sparking fears of a lengthy spell on the sidelines.Odegaard’s ankle twisted as he was challenged for the ball and he was forced to immediately come off, with Norway manager Stale Solbakken admitting after the match that the injury “looked bad”.
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00:00A massive game in Arsenal season coming up this weekend as they travel
00:04just up the Seven Sisters Road to meet Tottenham in the north London derby and some major problems
00:08it seems for Mikel Arteta to solve before that game kicks off. His midfield is in danger of
00:14being decimated really, we know there'll be no Declan Rice for that game because of suspension
00:18and no Mikel Moreno this summer signing either, who was injured in his very first training session
00:23after joining the club last month. And now it looks as if Martin Odegaard is a significant
00:28doubt too, he was forced off during the international break with an ankle problem
00:32in Norway's win over Austria. We don't yet know the full prognosis of that but he flew back to
00:37London the next morning to have scans and if he is out then it leaves Mikel Arteta with a real
00:42headache. How does he fit around his midfield? Thomas Pate you'd think will keep his place at
00:48the base of it having started the first three Premier League games and then Jorginho who's
00:52not played a minute yet but was a regular really last season, he could well come in although he's
00:57not exactly a like-for-like replacement for either Rice or Odegaard, different type of player
01:02so it might take a bit of a tactical tweak maybe to get those two into the same team.
01:07And then the third slot you could move Kai Havertz deeper, that's the job really that he was signed
01:12to do but he's been so good up front since really sort of February time and it would feel like a bit
01:18of a shame to move him from that position and maybe the same goes for Leandro Trossard who's
01:23very versatile but has made a good start to the season on the left wing. There are a few wild card
01:28options, defenders who have played at midfield earlier in their careers but not really in an
01:33Arsenal shirt, you think of players like Ben White, Jurijan Timber, Alex Zinchenko perhaps
01:38and then there's Ethan Wanieri, the young academy graduate. Arsenal rate him extremely highly so
01:44much so that they allowed Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith-Rowe to leave the club this summer but it
01:49would be a massive call to throw him in in midfield in a game of this magnitude and it's not
01:54just that game either if Martin Odegaard is out longer term that gives Mikel Arteta a huge huge
02:00problem even as early as next week because they go to Atalanta in the Champions League on Thursday
02:06night and then it's to the Etihad to meet Manchester City so plenty to ponder for the Arsenal manager
02:11and we'll have to wait and see what he does on Sunday.