‘Bit of a concern’: Journalist says he saw £30m Arsenal player limping yesterday

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Martin Odegaard has picked up an injury in pre-season.

The Norwegian midfielder was all set to start for Arsenal in their first game of pre-season on Thursday, but he was pulled out of the XI at the eleventh hour after picking up a knock in the warm-up.

Odegaard didn’t play a part on Thursday, and, worryingly, he looked in some discomfort during the game.

That is according to Football London’s Kaya Kaynak who noted on his YouTube channel that he could see Odegaard limping on the touchline during the game as he watched on from the press box.

Odegaard was limping

Kaynak shared what he saw the £30m player doing..

“The main injury I wanted to talk about is Martin Odegaard, he was due to start yesterday, and then he picked up a knock in the warm-up, Mikel Arteta confirmed to us that it was a calf knock. I saw him coming out of the tunnel to sit with the team on the bench and it did look like he was limping a touch. I wouldn’t say it was a full-on staggered limp, but he was uneasy walking around and that’s a little bit of a concern,” Kaynak said.

Worrying

This really isn’t good news.

Of course, a knock isn’t likely to keep Odegaard out for too long, but the fact that he could miss a portion of pre-season is very worrying.

This is the time of year that players really work on their match fitness in order to make sure they’re ready to hit the ground running, and Odegaard may now miss a part of this crucial preparation period.

Luckily for Arsenal, they do have alternative options in Odegaard’s position such as Emile Smith Rowe, Kai Havertz and Fabio Vieira, but the reality is that they will miss their talisman if he is out for a prolonged period.