Martin Odegaard suffered what appeared to be a serious ankle injury as Norway beat Austria 2-1 in the Nations League on Monday, with goals from Felix Horn Myhre and a late winner from Erling Haaland.
The Arsenal skipper left the pitch after receiving treatment for several minutes in the second half following a collision with Austria’s Christoph Baumgartner, and Norway boss Stale Solbakken said it looked bad.
“Martin Odegaard’s injury looked bad in the dressing room as well I saw he was sitting with the physiotherapists around him but he had no chance to continue and we know it was an ankle sprain,” the coach said. “Yes it’s a sprain, and as those of us who had played football know, with luck it can turn out ok if the ligaments aren’t torn,”
Norway’s doctor Ola Sand added that the 25-year-old was doing well, but that an MRI could be carried out tomorrow. “Martin is doing quite well now. He got a small ankle sprain. We will see throughout the evening and tomorrow what happens next and what we will do about it.
“Ankle sprains are difficult to deal with straight away, so we almost have to see how things go forward. We will examine him when we are back at the hotel. Maybe we use ultrasound to look at it. If we are unsure, there will be an MRI tomorrow,” Sand said.
Norway are second in League B Group 3, level on four points with Slovenia, who they will play next on Oct. 10.
Meanwhile, Italy kept up their perfect start to the UEFA Nations League. The Italians built on an impressive win away in France at the weekend as they beat Israel 2-1 in a game played on neutral territory in Budapest due to the security situation in the Middle East.
Goals in each half from Davide Frattesi and Moise Kean were enough for Italy to win in a subdued atmosphere at the Bozsik Arena, home of Honved. Luciano Spalletti’s team have reacted well to their disastrous European Championship title defence, which ended at the last-16 stage, and deserved their second win in a matter of days.
Frattesi followed his goal in the 3-1 win in France by chesting home Federico Dimarco’s pinpoint cross in the 38th minute to open the scoring. Fiorentina striker Kean made it 2-0 just after the hour mark with his first Italy goal in almost exactly three years, before Mohamed Abu Fani pulled one back at the end for Israel.
Italy are top of Nations League Group A2 with the maximum six points, while France and Belgium are level on three points apiece.
Meanwhile, RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko bagged a hat-trick as Slovenia beat Kazakhstan 3-0 in Ljubljana. In Group B4, Wales followed their goalless draw against Turkey by beating Montenegro 2-1 away for their first win under new coach Craig Bellamy.
They got off to a terrific start, with Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson both scoring inside the first three minutes. Driton Camaj then pulled one back for the hosts. Turkey beat Iceland 3-1 in Izmir, a game in which Kerem Akturkoglu of Benfica hit a hat-trick. There were also wins on Monday for Romania and Kosovo respectively in League C.