Odegaard out of Norway squad with knee injury

Martin Odegaard, the captain of Arsenal, has been sidelined for their upcoming international games after hurting his left knee against West Ham.

Due to a medial collateral ligament injury, the 26-year-old will miss Norway’s World Cup qualifier against Israel on October 11 and its friendly against New Zealand on October 14.

No date has been set for his return to action, but he will remain there to undergo evaluation and treatment.

Declan Rice, however, will report for England duty as scheduled despite a back injury from the same game.

Odegaard became the first player to have been substituted before half-time in three consecutive starts on Saturday, breaking an unnecessary precedent.

Due to a persistent shoulder issue, he came off early in victories against Leeds and Nottingham Forest.

After 30 minutes, he was withdrawn from West Ham after colliding with opposition forward Crysencio Summerville, according to manager Mikel Arteta.

Arteta said, “I just spoke to him after the game. He doesn’t think it matters. He has a brace on. Although we won’t be very lucky with that either, we will have to wait and see what the doctors will say.

For whatever reason, we haven’t had him since the start of the season. The shoulder twice before the injury.