Martin Odegaard bounced back from his injury concerns to provide an assist in Norway’s match against Wales on Thursday night.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was on the end of a bad foul by former Manchester City player Bernardo Silva on Sunday, and there was concern around his fitness after he then missed a training session on Tuesday.
But the Norway star then returned to training, before being named in the starting lineup against Wales on Thursday. Evidently, his ankle issue cleared up pretty quickly, which is good news for Arsenal.
Odegaard then made an immediate impact in the game, providing an assist with a perfectly weighted pass in behind the defensive line for Oscar Bobb to receive and finish for 1-0.
The rest of the game didn’t go to plan, with Wales equalising late in the first half, and Norway picking up a red card in the first minute of the second half. Wales scored from the subsequent free-kick, then saw out the 2-1 win against 10 men.
All the same, Odegaard’s assist maintained his excellent recent form for his country.
The 27-year-old has one goal and seven assists in his nine appearances in 2026, after scoring one and assisting seven in six games in 2025. That’s more than one goal contribution per game across the two calendar years so far, with only one of those goals occurring in a friendly match.
Three of the goals and assists were in the Nations League, eight were in World Cup qualifiers, and four (in just five games) at the World Cup.
Unfortunately for Arsenal fans, Norway do still have one game left over the international break, the return fixture against the Portugal side that almost injured Odegaard last week.
That match takes place on Sunday, with Norway looking to cut the six-point gap to the current group leaders.
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