Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard offers new injury update as comeback draws closer

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard says his ankle injury is healing “better” than expected.

The Gunners midfielder suffered “significant” ligament damage while on international duty with Norway in the Nations League last month and had been wearing a protective boot as he underwent recovery.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed on Friday that he had “expected” Odegaard to still be wearing the boot, but said he was already out of it - suggesting his skipper was ahead of schedule. Now Odegaard has provided a fresh recovery update of his own.

Writing in Arsenal’s programme ahead of the Premier League match against Southampton at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, he said: “I just wanted to start with the latest on my injury and rehab. In the last week or so I’ve made really good progress.

“I’m getting better and better by the day and feel it’s going well. When you feel like things are moving forward, it gives you motivation to do more and more and work harder. Today is our last game before another international break, so that gives me some more time to work on the rehab too.”

Odegaard added: “Hopefully, it won’t be much longer; I think we will know more as soon as I get out on the training pitches and we see how my ankle responds to that.

“At the moment it’s progressing well and it looks better than we were thinking, but we’ve still got to take every day as it comes.”