Arsenal don’t expect Martin Odegaard to return to the pitch for a competitive match action until November, with the club captain set to miss more key fixtures.

Sami Mokbel reports for the Daily Mail that Arsenal fear Martin Odegaard is going to miss eight weeks of action with his ankle ligament injury, expecting him to be unavailable until November.

Up until last Saturday, Arsenal were reportedly staying open to the possibility of an earlier return. But further testing confirmed that wouldn’t be possible, and that the midfielder will be out for a while.

Mikel Arteta initially confirmed the ligament damage in a press conference, saying: “After everything was scanned, they showed there was some damage, especially in one of the ligaments in the ankle so we’re going to miss him.”

But the Arsenal boss has repeatedly stayed guarded when it comes to the length of the absence.

“I don’t want to [put a timeframe on it] because I am not a doctor but it is something quite significant so we’re going to lose him for a while,” Arteta said in one press conference.

“We need to see the development in the next week or so, how the ankle reacts first of all and then the staff will give me an update on the timeframe and how long he’ll be out for,” he added in another.

A November return would mean that as well as Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers, and Leicester City this month, Odegaard would also miss October home matches against PSG, Southampton, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Liverpool, and the away game against Bournemouth.

Unless the Norway captain is back right at the start of November, he’d also be at risk of missing away trips to Newcastle United (November 2nd), Inter Milan (November 6th), and Chelsea (November 10th).