On Tuesday, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta gave updates on the injury/fitness/rehabilitation status of four players: Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke, Martin Odegaard and Piero Hincapie.
And then of course, this morning, he gave a follow up update on Odegaard- so let’s break it all down, ahead of the big clash with Newcastle United on Sunday.
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Kick: Sun. Sept. 28, 4:30pm, St. James Park, Newcastle, UK
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We starts with Havertz, whose knee injury will keep him out until late November.
“With Kai, we know that it will be months with him,” Arteta said. “I don’t know if it can be weeks; you never know… We really miss him. Hopefully, he will be back, and back for the long term as well, so it is very important to look after that knee. So far, he’s progressing pretty well.”
Next we move on Noni, who also has a knee injury. He’s looking at the same timeline as Havertz- late November.
“It looks he’s going to be out for a few weeks,” Arteta explained in midweek. “We don’t know [how long] yet. We’re probably going to have to scan him next week again. He felt something at the beginning of the match, he tried to carry on, and at half-time, he was too sore, so let’s see.”
Moving on to Odegaard, the team captain suffered a shoulder problem, but he’s fine now.
“No, no surgery,” Arteta said on Tuesday, alleviating the worst fears of Gunners supporters everywhere. “He’s totally fine. He’s already been training, and it will be a matter of days, I think.”
He is not 100% cleared to play on Sunday though. However, he’s definitely likely probably, with Arteta saying earlier today: “Martin will be training with us the next two days, so hopefully he will be fit.”
And then finally, with the summer signing Hincapie, his groin injury will sideline him for an unknown amount of time.
“He picked up a little groin injury,” Arteta said.
“We’ll have to assess him again in the next few days to see how he goes. There’s been a change of load, and he didn’t really have a pre-season after the surgery that he had. We’ll have to see in the next week or so how he is.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter