Arteta provides injury update on Odegaard ahead of North London derby

Odegaard sustained an ankle injury during Norway's Nations League match against Austria on Monday, which forced him off the field. Upon his return to London, he underwent several scans conducted by the club's medical team to assess the extent of the injury.

The midfielder is a key asset for the club and would desperately want to play this weekend in the derby but Arteta understands that this is likely not going to happen unless he wants to risk further injury. 

“We need some more tests so let’s see what happens in the next day or so,” he said. “Let’s see what happens, what the extent of the injury is and how quickly we can get him back. He’s super positive about everything. We know Martin - he wants to be there every single day but we have to wait and see. 

“He's willing, there's no question about that. He wants to be present every game and obviously in a big game like this one, but we need to make sure that we know first of all how good he can be or not. 

“Players with 48 hours to go are always available, but let's see what happens.” 

With Declan Rice suspended following his red card against Brighton & Hove Albion and new signing Mikel Merino picking up a shoulder injury before he could make his debut, Arsenal are certainly short on numbers in the middle. 

Arteta spoke on the Spanish international who is taking his time in recovery. 

“It's a slow process because it's a bone and it takes a while to heal,” Arteta added. “He is progressing well and is already doing some stuff. He is working extremely hard and we're using this time to make sure that he understands a lot of things that he has a lot of questions about, and when he’s back he’s ready to go and impact the team. 

“It's very difficult to understand the healing of the bone. I think at the moment he doesn’t have a lot of symptoms so you can speed it up very quickly because he hasn't lost anything else but we have to wait and see.”