The incident happened in training before travelling to Newcastle (Picture: Getty)
Martin Odegaard did not miss Arsenal’s recent matches against Newcastle and Sevilla due to his ongoing hip issue but actually suffered concussion in training, according to reports.
The 24-year-old has been sidelined for the past few weeks, missing three straight Premier League games and a crucial away trip to Seville in the Champions League.
As a result, he was forced to withdraw from Norway’s international squad for their upcoming matches against the Faroe Islands and Scotland.
His absence against Newcastle at the start of the month was particularly curious, with manager Mikel Arteta having made no mention of any issue at his pre-match press conference while Odegaard was even spotted in training the day before.
But now the Daily Mail have revealed that in that final training session on Friday 3 November, Odegaard picked up a fresh problem entirely unrelated to his hip issue.
The Arsenal skipper had been willing to play through the pain but was forced to miss the trip to St James’ Park when he took a ball flush to the face during training at the club’s London Colney HQ.
Odegaard had to be checked for concussion and was immediately withdrawn from the starting XI for the match, having been in line to play.
Odegaard in training before his head injury (Picture: Getty)
Concussion rules state that players must rest for six days and be symptom free before they can return to action.
Odegaard therefore missed both the Newcastle clash and the trip to Sevilla off the back of being hit in the face.
He had been expected to return for the visit of Burnley on Saturday, though his absence against the Clarets – as well as his withdrawal from Norway’s squad – are believed to be linked to his original hip problem rather than concussion.
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Despite his injury issues, Arsenal are confident Odegaard will return to action after the international break and he has been put on an individual programme.
Odegaard’s Norway boss Stale Solbakken offered a little bit of insight into the skipper’s injury issues at a press conference on Monday, saying: ‘I can say that it is a very normal football injury that you’ll very likely recover from completely.
‘It’s not career-threatening! He will play many more international matches for Norway.’
MORE : ‘Arsenal are so reserved about it’ – Norway boss provides Martin Odegaard injury insight
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The incident happened in training before travelling to Newcastle.