Martin Odegaard has sped up his recovery from an ankle injury. The leader of Arsenal hopes to be back playing soon.
Arsenal posted a video on social media of Odegaard continuing to heal over the international break. The captain of the Gunners was seen running on an AlterG Anti-Gravity machine.
He says, “What a day,” in the video. “Running on the AlterG. Unreal.” Odegaard hurt himself last month while on international duty with Norway. He hasn’t played in any of Arsenal’s last seven games in all competitions.
Before Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Southampton over the weekend, the midfielder gave a positive report on his recovery. He wrote in the matchday program, “I just wanted to start with the latest on my injury and rehab.”
“I’ve made a lot of progress in the last week or so.” Every day I feel better and think things are going well. You want to do more and work harder when you think things are going in the right direction.
“Today is our last game before the next international break. That gives me more time to work on my body too.” The longer it takes, the better. I think we’ll know more once I’m back on the training fields and can see how my ankle reacts to that.
“At the moment it’s progressing well and it looks better than we were thinking, but we’ve still got to take every day as it comes.” It was “difficult” for Arteta to give a “timeline” for Odegaard’s comeback.
“Martin is very difficult, I expected still with the boot and a lot of things and he’s working so hard and is feeling good and is pushing it so it’s difficult to give a timeline,” he said before the Southampton match.
“Martin makes such a big difference in everything we do that we couldn’t try to do it with just one player.” We tried to do it differently by changing a few things and relying on the skills of the players—players who can play in the right place and with the right people around them.
“It might have taken a game or two, but there was a better flow after that. We found a way.” He was one of our most important stars, so we still miss him.