Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has stepped up his recovery by running on an anti-gravity treadmill.
Odegaard injured his ankle playing for Norway last month and has missed Arsenal’s last seven games.
Arsenal and Odegaard are not putting a timeframe on his return yet, although they are expected to have a better idea when he is back in training.
The Gunners have big games coming up against Liverpool on October 27 and Inter Milan on November 6, and it remains to be seen if Odegaard has a chance of making them.
The midfielder is working on his own until he can rejoin training and has made good progress by starting to run on an anti-gravity treadmill.
Arsenal have used the machine repeatedly in the past when players have suffered injuries as it allows them to begin running sooner by reducing the weight on a joint or muscle.
Odegaard suffered what Mikel Arteta has described as “significant” ankle-ligament damage and the anti-gravity treadmill eases the pressure put on it when he runs.
The Norwegian gave an update on his recovery last week, telling Arsenal’s match-day programme “hopefully it won’t be much longer” until he is back.
“I just wanted to start with the latest on my injury and rehab,” Odegaard said ahead of last week’s game with Southampton.
“In the last week or so I’ve made really good progress. I’m getting better and 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.”
