Mikel Arteta gives replace on injured Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard as he reveals playmaker has suffered ‘fairly important’ ankle ligament harm

Martin Odegaard has sustained ‘important’ harm to an ankle ligament which can see him out for a ‘whereas’, revealed Mikel Arteta on Wednesday.

The event is a significant blow for Arsenal forward of their Premier League showdown towards Manchester Metropolis this Sunday.

It follows accidents to Mikel Merino, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney who will all additionally miss the fixture.

Captain Odegaard injured his ankle on worldwide obligation for Norway final Monday and was seen boarding a aircraft again to London with crutches.

Forward of Arsenal’s Champions League opener towards Atalanta on Thursday evening, Arteta mentioned: ‘After every part was scanned, the scan confirmed he has obtained some harm, particularly on one of many ligaments within the ankle.

Arteta revealed the harm to Odegaard’s ankle is extra important than was first thought

‘We’re going to miss him. I don’t wish to (give a timeline) as a result of I’m not a physician however yeah, it’s one thing fairly important, so we’re going to lose him for some time.

‘Hopefully not months, however let’s see. He’s our captain, he’s certainly one of our greatest gamers definitely.

‘He has been one of the constant gamers within the final two or three seasons. Our id may be very associated to his means of taking part in and his means of behaving. We’re going to must take care of that.

‘That may be a nice take a look at for the group as nicely, of how succesful we’re to point out perhaps a distinct face and the actual fact now we have different gamers and different choices that may nonetheless be very efficient.’

Arteta’s males did brilliantly within the absence of their skipper and the suspended Declan Rice on the weekend, coming away from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with all three factors.  

Defender Gabriel Magalhaes obtained the one purpose of the sport and Odegaard shall be lacking one other enormous sport on Sunday when his facet journey to face Man Metropolis on the Etihad.

Metropolis play at residence towards Inter Milan on Wednesday evening, whereas the Gunners can have a day much less to get better from a testing journey to Italy.

Odegaard limped off with the difficulty throughout Norway’s sport towards Austria final week

‘Is {that a} drawback? Hopefully not,’ mentioned Arteta. ‘Hopefully now we have a lot vitality from what occurred on Sunday as nicely. It was nice. We’re trying on the positives.’

Bukayo Saka limped off at Spurs however Arteta had higher information on the England ahead.

‘Sure he was in a position to prepare as we speak, he accomplished a lot of the session and but he’s accessible,’ he mentioned.