Martin Odegaard Returns to Arsenal Training
Martin Odegaard is back in the building.
Arsenal’s captain returned to work at London Colney this week, reporting for pre-season after his post-World Cup break. The club confirmed his comeback with training images on their official channels, a familiar No. 8 back in the red bib, easing into the drills.
He will not, however, be anywhere near the pitch in Dublin on Wednesday night.
While the bulk of Mikel Arteta’s senior squad prepare to face Real Betis in Ireland, Odegaard remains in England, working through the first steps of his individual programme. Arsenal are keeping to a clear plan: no shortcuts, no rushed reunions, even for the man who drives their midfield.
The pattern has already been set. Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli only rejoined the group last week after Brazil’s World Cup exit and were promptly left out of the subsequent friendly against Girona. They trained, they built rhythm, but they did not play.
The message from the medical and fitness staff is obvious. A few days of conditioning comes before any minutes. Sharpness before showtime.
Odegaard’s schedule fits neatly into that timeline. Brazil’s World Cup campaign ended on July 5th; Norway’s run finished on July 11th. The two Gabriels were always going to report back first, with their captain following roughly a week later. So it has proved.
That staggered return has a knock-on effect. Arsenal’s remaining World Cup internationals, whose tournaments finished seven to eight days after Norway’s, are expected back by Thursday of next week. They will walk straight into a race against the clock.
The Community Shield looms on Sunday, August 16th. For those only just stepping off the plane and into testing and running drills, the turnaround is brutally tight. Inside the club, there is little expectation that the late-returning internationals will play a major part at Wembley, if they feature at all.
The more realistic target lies closer to home.
By the time Borussia Dortmund arrive in north London for the Emirates Cup this weekend, Odegaard should be ready to feel the grass under his boots in a match setting again. Not from the start, not for long, but enough to remind everyone what they have been missing.
Recent friendlies offer a clear template. Against Girona, Piero Hincapie, Kai Havertz, and Viktor Gyokeres each logged around half an hour as they stepped back into action. Those managed bursts are likely to be the model: similar minutes pencilled in for the two Gabriels on Wednesday, then for Odegaard on Sunday.
It is a slow burn by design. The captain has returned. The real question now is how quickly Arsenal can bring his influence from the training pitches of Colney back to centre stage, just as another demanding season closes in.
