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Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard will not feature in their Champions League opener with Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday after suffering a recurrence of a shoulder injury.
Odegaard was forced off during the first half of Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday following a collision with Morgan Gibbs-White.
The Norway midfielder had been troubled by a shoulder injury before the recent international break, and manager Mikel Arteta confirmed that Odegaard had not travelled with the squad to Bilbao for the Gunners’ first game of the league phase having sustained another blow to the same area.
Bukayo Saka remains out with a hamstring issue, while Kai Havertz (knee) and Gabriel Jesus (ACL) are both still unavailable.
On Saka, Arteta told a pre-match press conference: “I think he’s still quite a lot of things to go through, very difficult to understand what week he is going to be available.”
Arsenal reached the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, beating Real Madrid in the quarter-finals before losing to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.
Asked about the Gunners’ prospects in this season’s competition, Arteta said: “We know it’s going to be a really long journey. You have to give yourself the best chance to win the game.
