Surely Arsenal won’t allow Ødegaard to be available for the November internationals, right?
The Norwegian international has been missing for nearly six weeks worth of action so far, because of his unfortunate injury sustained for Norway in early September. In this period of time, he has missed nine games for us, but we’ve faired pretty good in his absence, winning 6 out of those 9, with the dropped points coming from the opening UCL game of the season and the two Premier League games that we were down to ten men.
We’ve only started to feel his absence the more recently in the last two game,s where we’ve struggled to find a cutting edge without him and Saka in the side. Arteta and the club have revealed recently that he is on track to make a return to the side before the November international break which will be a big boost to our season.
The Norwegian national team’s head coach has further hinted to an early November return for Ødegaard after recently admitting that he might be called up for the next set of international fixtures if he’s ready, the Norwegian told VG: “Everything indicates that things are going according to plan, so it’s about the last steps when you have to train with opponents and in team training. It depends on how he responds to that, but we have a legitimate hope that he is ready.”
This is good news indeed given how long we’ve been without our skipper, however I really do hope that the Gunners will do the sensible thing of making him unavailable for selection in the next break. He’ll probably just be back right before the international break in November so it would be a risk to let him be involved in the set of fixtures that got him injured in the first place. He would be better off staying back with the team and participating in further training to boost his fitness.
The player will have a say though and I’m sure he won’t pass up the opportunity to represent his country under any circumstances, but I hope the club does it’s best to stop his involvement if he’s fit at that time.
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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It depends. Under “normal circumstances”, clubs cannot prevent players from playing for their country unless they first confer with the country’s football association.
Arsenal could, of course, make a case based on what happened to Odegaard last time out but if the Norwegians don’t agree (and Odegaard himself really wants to play) then I’m not sure Arsenal will be able to do anything.
It’s not down to Arsenal or Ødegaard, if Norway insists he joins up for them to be assessed then he goes, but even if that happens I doubt he will play.
Ødegaard doesn’t HAVE to go, ask Ben White. Of course, he obviously loves playing for and captaining Norway, but he could pull out if he really wanted to. However, I doubt if it would come to that this time.
Yes, but referencing the White example may well go some way to ensure Odegaard plays. I’m sure some sort of “arrangement” will be reached though.
It vexed me when I heard Norway’s boss talking about getting Odegaard back I’d be pissed if he returned for them ahead of us