Mikel Arteta will hope Martin Odegaard can stay fit ahead of the UEFA Champions League final later this month.
Martin Odegaard has provided an update on his fitness following Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final. The 27-year-old midfielder, whose campaign has been littered with injuries, replaced Declan Rice during the second half of Tuesday night’s clash, marking his return to the side.
Odegaard was forced to come off shortly before the hour mark in the first leg of the tie, subsequently missing the 3-0 win over Fulham on Saturday afternoon. The Gunners captain recovered from the knee injury just in time to face Diego Simeone’s side, coming off the bench to see out a historic victory at the Emirates Stadium.
Before helping the north London outfit seal a place in the final at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, the Norway manager provided an update on Odegaard. During an appearance on TV2, Ståle Solbakken described the midfielder’s situation as ‘not ideal’.
After the game, the Norwegian television channel interviewed Odegaard. When quizzed on his fitness, the Arsenal skipper suggested that he’s yet to fully recover from the knock.
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“We have to take it a little day by day,” said Odegaard, as quoted by Sport Witness. TV2 also spoke to Rice, who was very complimentary of his teammate.
“Martin deserves it,” said the Gunners midfielder. “Since he came here in 2020/21, he has taken the club to this level. He is a phenomenal player. When we have him, we are such a much better team.”
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As it stands, the severity of Odegaard’s knock remains unclear, and Mikel Arteta will be expected to provide an update when he faces the press on Friday afternoon, having not done so on Tuesday night. Nevertheless, the Spaniard will hope his skipper can stay fit ahead of the Champions League final at the end of the month.
Speaking to reporters after the win over Atletico, the Arsenal boss heaped praise on his players. Arteta said: “It’s an incredible night. We made history again together.
“I cannot be happier and prouder of everyone involved in this football club. The manner that we got to see outside the stadium was special and unique.
“The atmosphere that our supporters created, the energy, the way they lived every ball with us, it made it special and unique. I never felt that in the stadium. We knew how much it meant to everybody.
“We put everything in, the boys did an incredible job. After 20 years and for the second time in our history, we are back in the Champions League final.”
On whether he plans to make any changes to the starting lineup for this weekend’s clash against West Ham, Arteta said: “If you see my iPad, the amount of line-ups I’ve done and changed and turned it again, and what about this and the possible subs and if they do that, we do this.
“In the end it was my gut feeling. I had such a good feeling from what I saw a few days ago against Fulham. To do that, it was painful because it was difficult to leave important players out, because they all want to be involved and start this kind of game.
“You saw all the finishers, the manner that they got into the pitch and how much they helped the team…”
