An Arsenal injury worry has been avoided on international duty.
On-loan midfielder Martin Odegaard had the honour of captaining Norway for the first time in their World Cup qualifier against Gibraltar on Wednesday night.
However, his night was over at half-time which will have been of major concern to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta ahead of the Premier League game against Liverpool next week and the Europa League quarter-final with Slavia Praha.
Replaced at the break, Odegaard watched on from the sidelines as his teammates eased to victory to get their qualification bid for the 2022 tournament in Qatar off to the perfect start.
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A Norwegian live blog of the game has provided information as to when Odegaard sustained the injury and when he returned to the pitch.
“40′ Odegaard pulls past two players in the corner of the penalty area before he goes to the ground,” a post reads. “Stays lying down and must have treatment.
“42′ Norway’s captain is back on the field again.
“46′ Norway changes: Berg and Hauge replace Odegaard and Elyounoussi.”
If Odegaard’s injury was worse than first feared and he had to miss out against Liverpool a week on Saturday, it will certainly would have been a massive blow for the Gunners.
However, Norway national team coach Stale Solbakken has confirmed that Odegaard has not suffered a serious injury and hopes to have him back against Turkey on Saturday.
This is great news for Arsenal, especially has Arteta praised the midfielder’s performance against West Ham United.
“I think he had an incredible performance, he was very intelligent the way he read the game, the way he affected the game and again he showed how much he wants to win,” said Arteta.
“When everyone was a little bit trembling, he gave us that composure on the ball and he created chance after chance.
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“I love talented and creative players that all the time are willing to take that ball and make things happen, that are mobile and also hard-working.
“He is one of them.
“We have some others with different qualities but it’s true that Martin is now giving us a different level on certain things that we didn’t have.”