Martin Odegaard has travelled to Norway for the international break despite being injured, and he’ll attend their match against Israel on Saturday.
Arsenal recently confirmed that Martin Odegaard has an MCL injury, at the very least ruling him out of Norway’s matches over the international break.
Yet the Arsenal and Norway captain has travelled to his home country anyway, with manager Stale Solbakken confirming he’ll be at Saturday’s game. Though Solbakken added that they haven’t decided whether Odegaard will be in the dressing room.
“We didn’t agree on that,” Solbakken said. “He’s coming to the game. We haven’t agreed on what he does or doesn’t do, but he’ll definitely come in.”
“He was here (at training) and watched a bit, and had a nice lunch with the guys. Martin is a big part of us, he is our captain even though he doesn’t play.
“We would have liked to have him on the field, but he is a good man off it.”
Ryan Taylor reports for Football.London that Arsenal and Norway sources are both reluctant to put a timeframe on Odegaard’s return to action. But Norwegian national team sources feel it’s a positive sign that the player was authorised to travel abroad this week.
Norway are in a great position to qualify for the World Cup, and they really just need one last push to get over the line.
A win over Israel would guarantee a finish above Israel, and a draw would effectively confirm the same due to the massive goal difference gap between the two. That would mean a top-two finish and a play-off place at the very least.
But regardless of the Norway-Israel result, Italy will still be capable of catching Norway as long as they win their own games. Conversely, even if Norway lose their next two games, they could still catch Italy.
The final group fixture between Italy and Norway on November 16th looks crucial to decide the team that qualifies automatically.