Morning.
We begin the week and the Interlull on prime of the Premier League, however there’s additionally a little bit of unhealthy information to kick off at present with after Arsenal launched an replace on Martin Odegaard. He had a conflict of knees within the 2-0 win over West Ham on Saturday, and has suffered injury to his medial collateral ligament.
The membership say:
Martin Odegaard has been withdrawn from the Norway nationwide workforce for his or her upcoming matches in opposition to Israel and New Zealand after sustaining a medial collateral ligament harm to his left knee through the first half in Saturday’s win over West Ham United.
Martin will proceed to be assessed and handled by our medical workforce at Sobha Realty Coaching Centre through the worldwide window, with the goal of a return to motion as quickly as attainable.
Clearly that’s not excellent news, however it’s additionally not as unhealthy because it might need been. The day trip is dependent upon the grade of the problem, and at this level we’re not clear on that. It might be just some weeks, it might be fairly a bit longer if he requires surgical procedure, so let’s preserve fingers crossed it’s the previous slightly than the latter. My hope is that the very fact he was capable of a minimum of attempt to keep on was as a result of it wasn’t as critical because it might have been, however maybe adrenaline and a will to hold on would possibly offset {that a} bit. Let’s see.
It’s been a nightmare begin to the season for the captain who twice needed to come off injured in earlier residence Premier League video games with a shoulder harm earlier than choosing up this newest downside on Saturday. I assume it’s a actual illustration of how sturdy our squad is that we’re in that place when our captain has accomplished 90 minutes simply as soon as up to now within the Premier League; Bukayo Saka has carried out that simply twice; and gamers like Kai Havertz and Ben White – essential cogs in Mikel Arteta’s machine – have simply 100 minutes mixed, and people got here in the identical sport on the opening weekend in opposition to Man Utd.
I do know no one notably loved final season, however I do assume it has presumably ingrained in us a capability to deal with absences that ordinarily we wouldn’t have. Including actual depth this summer time has been a giant a part of that, clearly, however I imagine there’s one thing psychological about it too. Don’t get me incorrect, we miss these gamers and their absences are a blow, however with that depth and the expertise of final season, it doesn’t really feel like a hammer blow every time it occurs.
What I’d say although is that I actually need it to cease occurring. Arteta was fairly fascinating on the subject of accidents earlier than the West Ham sport, speaking about what number of components can play an element in what occurs – with poor outdated Emile Smith Rowe caught within the crossfire a bit! However with one thing just like the Odegaard state of affairs on Saturday, that’s simply pure unhealthy luck.
Anybody who has performed soccer can have skilled that knee on knee conflict sooner or later, and it’s often actually, actually painful. Usually although, that’s all it’s, however on this case he’s suffered some actual injury. I went again to take a look at it, and it does appear as if the contact is the entrance of Crysencio Summerville’s knee to the aspect of his, and that’s why he got here off the worst.
Anyway, the great factor is that we have now the choices to stay with out Odegaard for some time, with Eberechi Eze, Ethan Nwaneri and Mikel Merino candidates to stand-in relying on who we’re taking part in or the game-state, however the sooner we have now him again the higher. The efficiency in opposition to Olympiacos felt like somebody decided to make up for misplaced time, however sadly there’ll be extra of that when he does make his eventual return. Let’s want him a speedy restoration.
Proper, I’ll go away it there this morning. We’ll have an Arsecast Further for you later this afternoon. Preserve a watch out for the decision for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or should you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, go away your query within the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server. Pod must be out round 5pm or so.
Within the meantime, we’ll have an Arsenal Ladies Arsecast out this morning, and an episode of The 30 over on Patreon, recapping all of the weekend’s Premier League motion.
For now, have an excellent one.
