Arsenal have suffered a major blow with Martin Odegaard still a ‘long way’ from being considered fully fit.

Odegaard has been sidelined since the September international break when he suffered an ankle injury in Norway’s win over Austria. The Gunners skipper limped off 67 minutes into that game and has not been able to play since.

In that time he has missed wins over Tottenham and Leicester, as well as draws with Manchester City and Atalanta. Last week, boss Mikel Arteta raised hopes that he may be able to return soon after the October international break.

But those hopes appear to have been dashed by Norway boss Stale Solbakken. The former Wolves manager has left Odegaard out of the squad which will face Slovenia and Austria in the Nations League.

Explaining that decision, Solbakken claimed the midfielder was still “a long way” from being considered for selection, coupling his absence with that of Manchester City’s Oscar Bobb. He did reveal though that Odegaard may link up with the team during the break, with Erling Haaland named skipper in his absence.

“That both Oscar and Martin are out at the same time – it would be naive to say that it doesn’t have a meaning. After all, we played the last 35 minutes against Austria without Martin,” Solbakken added.

“And [we] won that part of the match 1-0, so it’s not like we don’t think we can do it without him. But Martin is very important to the group and he has been among the best in every match in recent years.”

Ahead of the win over Leicester on Saturday, Arteta insisted his side were dealing with Odegaard’s absence well. But he also hinted that the skipper would soon be back in action.

“No (new time frame), but I think it will be a matter of weeks,” he said. “How long exactly, I cannot tell you. We might get a surprise (before the international break) but I think it’s unlikely.

“If you put me in this scenario before I started this season with the calendar that we were given, the fixtures that we had, the three away games that we had and the amount of injuries that we had to deal with and how we got out of that, I would be very, very pleased.

“It’s not just Martin, obviously he’s one of our best players and a player that has more impact on the team in many ways, but there were many others as well and the team has coped extremely well because we have an exceptional group.

“A lot of players have taken a different role in the leadership, in their importance in the team and they embrace that challenge. I’m really happy for that. Obviously the influence that Martin had in our attacking phase is enormous, we cannot question that.

“We don’t have it so we have to adapt our way of playing and find other ways to do it that are very efficient. It won’t be the same. It will be different, but hopefully very efficient as well as reported by mirror.co.uk.”