Martin \u00d8degaard suffered a medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury during Arsenal’s 2\u20130 victory over West Ham United, a setback that forced the club captain off early and prompted an official statement from the club. The injury followed a collision of knees in the match, adding to fitness concerns that have troubled \u00d8degaard this season.<\/p>\n
Around this time last year \u00d8degaard sustained an ankle injury that contributed to a difficult period for Arsenal as injuries undermined their title challenge. This season, Mikel Arteta is already without Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Deadline Day addition Piero Hincapi\u00e9, yet the side have maintained their momentum, helped by summer arrivals and tactical evolution under Arteta.<\/p>\n
\u00d8degaard had also been managing a shoulder issue in recent weeks, and his forced withdrawal in Saturday\u2019s win created an unwanted record: he became the first player in Premier League history to be substituted before half-time in three consecutive starts. Arsenal confirmed the MCL diagnosis but have not provided a return timetable, saying that “further assessment” is needed to clarify the extent of the damage.<\/p>\n
As a result of the injury he has withdrawn from the Norway squad for upcoming World Cup qualifiers. Medical outlooks for MCL injuries vary by severity: a Grade 1 injury would be the best case and could allow a return in about three weeks; a Grade 2 injury would likely keep him out for more than a month; a Grade 3 injury could sideline him for up to ten weeks. Arsenal and their medical staff will determine the grade after scans and assessments.<\/p>\n
For now, Arsenal will continue without their captain while they wait for more detailed medical information. The club\u2019s cautious approach aims to establish a clear recovery plan before announcing any estimated return date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Martin \u00d8degaard’s MCL injury in the 2\u20130 win over West Ham leaves Arsenal awaiting further assessment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[947,1006],"class_list":["post-3609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-ankle-injury","tag-captaincy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}