Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard was cautiously optimistic when assessing his chances of making a swift return to the pitch after what he bitterly described as an “unlucky” run of injuries.
The Norwegian playmaker has certainly suffered from some misfortune. Ødegaard became the first player in Premier League history to be substituted in the first half of three consecutive top-flight appearances after twice damaging his shoulder before sustaining the knee issue which is currently plaguing him.
When faced with reports that Ødegaard would be sidelined until at least the second half of November, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta accepted that he would be without his skipper for “a few weeks.”
The talismanic midfielder would not be drawn into a specific timeline, instead asking for patience. “It’s tricky to set a return date with this type of injury because, especially it being my [stronger] left leg, a lot depends on how it goes when I start getting back on the pitch,” Ødegaard wrote in Arsenal’s programme ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League thumping of Atlético Madrid.
“Sometimes it can be quite sore when you start passing the ball and shooting and all these things with that leg, so it’s really hard to say a date. All I can say is I’m progressing really well at the moment. I think we will know more when I start getting back on the training pitches and we’ll see how that goes. If that goes really well then it can be quick.”
Ødegaard: I Feel Really Unlucky
“It’s hard work and long days in recovery, but that’s what you want and I feel like it’s going well so far,” Ødegaard continued. “I feel like I’ve been really unlucky a few times this season.
“It was a knee-to-knee contact in the West Ham game, and at the time I didn’t know if it was bad or not because they can be quite painful, but normally you can run it off. So that’s why I tried to keep going, to see if it was getting better.” Arsenal would later diagnose Ødegaard with medial collateral ligament damage.
“I was hoping it was just a knock that would improve in a couple of minutes,” he recalled. “But it didn’t get better and I felt like something was wrong, so in the end it was better to come off. As soon as we got inside, the medical team had a proper look at it. When the adrenaline stopped flowing and it settled down a bit, then it was quite sore.”
Arsenal have thus far fared well in Ødegaard’s absence, with the midweek thrashing the team’s fourth victory from the five games missed by the club captain. However, the Gunners once again had to rely upon a set piece to break the deadlock against Atlético in a contest which was still goalless at half time and far tighter than the scoreline may at first suggest.
Without the creativity offered by Ødegaard’s currently compromised left leg, Arsenal have struggled to conjure a consistent stream of chances which aren’t delivered from a corner kick.
The Gunners have scored just five times from open play in the Premier League this season, fewer than the newly promoted duo of Sunderland and Burnley as well as more than half the division. This isn’t even that much of a finishing quirk; Arsenal rank an underwhelming seventh for open-play xG, only fractionally ahead of a Nottingham Forest side already onto their third manager of the season.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Martin Odegaard Breaks Silence on ‘Unlucky’ Injury.