Arsenal fans are confident Martin Odegaard is closing on making his comeback after the club released footage of the injured playmaker stepping up his rehabilitation.

The influential skipper has missed his side’s last seven matches in all competitions after he sustained an ankle ligament injury while playing for Norway during last month’s international break.

Supporters were concerned last month when a strategically placed ball obscured Odegaard’s damaged ankle during the first team’s official photo shoot.

Those fears were confirmed shortly afterwards when the extent of the damage was confirmed, but hopes of an imminent return were raised on Tuesday with the sight of Mikel Arteta’s main playmaker running freely on a treadmill.

In Odegaard’s absence, Arsenal have maintained their unbeaten start to the season and are well placed in both domestic and European competitions.

The 25-year-old has been left out of Norway’s squad for their upcoming Nations League fixtures and Odegaard will hope to continue to make rapid progress ahead of the Premier League resumption.

Arsenal are next in action on October 19 against Bournemouth and then face the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Inter in the space of a month and understandably Gooners are hopeful their No.8 will be able feature in that daunting run.

‘I’ve now watched a man running on a treadmill an unhealthy amount of times,’ said on excited fan.’

Another said: ‘This post is Arsenal sending a threat to the rest of the league. I dig it. And another remarked: ‘There’s a special flavor that comes with him….that we missed!’

Speaking ahead of last weekend’s 3-1 over Southampton, meanwhile Odegaard indicated he was making solid progress in his recovery, saying:

‘In the last week or so I’ve made really good progress. I’m getting better & better by the day and feel it’s going well.

‘When you feel like things are moving forward, it gives you motivation to do more and more and work harder.

‘Today is our last game before another international break, so that gives me some more time to work on the rehab, too. Hopefully it won’t be much longer — I think we will know more as soon as I get out on the training pitches and we see how my ankle responds to that.

‘At the moment it’s progressing well and it looks better than we were thinking, but we’ve still got to take every day as it comes.

‘Anyway, it looks as though the team don’t really need me at the moment! We have been playing so well lately & got another good result on Tuesday against PSG.’

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