Norway manager St\u00e5le Solbakken has delivered a calming injury update on Martin \u00d8degaard, insisting the Arsenal captain is not facing a major knee problem despite limited appearances this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing serious about Martin,\u201d Norway\u2019s manager told Viaplay. \u201cThe most important thing is that he recovers completely and is good for us in the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those of us who care about the World Cup , it\u2019s not a disaster that he\u2019s getting some breaks now. He\u2019s going to rebuild and be crucial for Arsenal in April\/May and maybe late March.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00d8degaard has been restricted to just 13 Premier League starts this season and there had been suggestions he might require an extended period on the sidelines to address fitness concerns. Solbakken\u2019s assessment, however, frames the situation as manageable and focused on a full recovery ahead of the summer.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta has voiced worries about the direction of his side\u2019s season after an injury run disrupted the midfield. \u00d8degaard joined Mikel Merino, Kai Havertz and youngster Max Dowman on the sidelines, and the loss of options coincided with a dip in results as Eberechi Eze\u2019s minutes increased and Bukayo Saka was tried in a central role.<\/p>\n
Havertz and Dowman have since returned and \u00d8degaard is said to be closing in on a comeback, which would add another high-level rotation option for Arteta as Arsenal remain in contention across four major trophies: the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.<\/p>\n
A precise return date for \u00d8degaard has not been provided, but Solbakken sounded confident the midfielder would be available in April, with the possibility of returning as early as late March. That timing matters for both club and country: an international break at the end of March precedes Norway\u2019s final warm-up window before the World Cup, and Solbakken will prioritise a cautious approach to avoid unnecessary risk.<\/p>\n
Fixtures cited in the original update:
\n– Man City \u2014 Carabao Cup final: March 22
\n– Bournemouth (H): April 11
\n– Man City (A): April 19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Solbakken: Odegaard’s knee is not serious; he could return in late March or April to help fans this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1066,1047,1515],"class_list":["post-7671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-carabao-cup","tag-champions-league","tag-odegaard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671","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=7671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}