Arsenal captain Martin \u00d8degaard faces an absence stretching to at least the November international break after being diagnosed with an MCL issue, according to a new report. The club previously described a persistent shoulder problem before the MCL diagnosis. Arsenal did not give a recovery timeframe, though some experts suggested the lay-off could be as long as two months.<\/p>\n
BBC Sport reports \u00d8degaard will be out until Nov. 23 at the earliest. The same report offers no definitive return date for the 26-year-old and expresses doubt over his involvement in the first north London derby of the season immediately after the international window. That prognosis guarantees he will miss a run of important fixtures over the coming weeks:<\/p>\n
Oct. 18 \u2014 Premier League, Fulham (A)
Oct. 21 \u2014 Champions League, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid (H)
Oct. 26 \u2014 Premier League, Crystal Palace (H)
Oct. 29 \u2014 EFL Cup, Brighton (H)
Nov. 1 \u2014 Premier League, Burnley (A)
Nov. 4 \u2014 Champions League, Slavia Praha (A)
Nov. 8 \u2014 Premier League, Sunderland (A)<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta\u2019s current league leaders have managed reasonably well despite \u00d8degaard having featured for less than one-third of available Premier League minutes this season. The club skipper is typically the team\u2019s most prolific creator, though he competes for that distinction with Bukayo Saka. Unlike \u00d8degaard, Saka is back fit and available.<\/p>\n
In limited Premier League time Saka has logged 348 minutes and created six chances from open play, the second-highest total in the Arsenal squad. Right back Jurri\u00ebn Timber leads that particular metric with seven, a return partly attributable to his availability. Timber has appeared in every league game so far this season, and that consistency has fuelled talk of a new contract.<\/p>\n
Set-piece specialist Declan Rice has produced two assists from corner situations this season and is expected to remain a key delivery option. The article also notes summer recruit Eberechi Eze was arguably brought in to contribute in these scenarios.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00d8degaard to be sidelined until at least the November international break, forcing Arsenal adjustment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[826,1047,253],"class_list":["post-3759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-champions-league","tag-declan-rice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3759","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=3759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}