Journalist Charles Watts has outlined his concern that a number of Arsenal players could become unwell after Martin Odegaard travelled with the team before coming down with an illness.
What’s the latest on Martin Odegaard and Arsenal?
Ahead of their Europa League clash with Sporting CP, the club captain, as well as left-back Kieran Tierney, were unavailable due to them being ill.
While Tierney didn’t even travel to Portugal, Odegaard was on the plane before being deemed too unwell to play any part in the match that ended up all square at 2-2.
With Arsenal pushing for the title in the Premier League, Mikel Arteta will no doubt hope to have both players fit and available this weekend against Fulham.
And while it remains to be seen if they will be able to play, Watts has warned that any virus of flu could end up being spread around the dressing room after Odegaard spent that time on the aeroplane with his teammates.
While speaking on YouTube, the journalist said: “We know Kieran Tierney didn’t even travel because he was ill. Odegaard did travel but obviously came down with this bug that is going around.
“Hopefully, fingers crossed, that doesn’t become too much of an issue and Arsenal can sort it out. It’s not ideal that Odegaard’s obviously caught this and then been on the plane with the whole squad. You know, that’s a bit of a worry.
“Hopefully it’s not going to be anything too serious. You do get these issues during the season when a sickness bug goes around the squad and around the camp. It’s really hard to deal with it because everyone’s in such a confined space in the changing room, in the showers, or on an aeroplane, like we saw last night.
“It’s very difficult, if there is a bug going around, to stop it, and you’ve just got to sort of cross your fingers and hope that not too many people catch it.”
How bad is the illness for Martin Odegaard and Arsenal?
In a report on the matter by football.london, it was claimed that both Odegaard and Tierney’s situations are understood to be “precautionary absences” and “not serious”.
Even so, it’s noticed that the bug has had an impact on other areas of the Arsenal camp, as Fabio Vieira had to be replaced by Gabriel Martinelli for press conference duties on Wednesday due to a sore throat.
With that in mind, there’s every chance that more players could soon go down with the same illness, which could be fairly disastrous for the club. After all, in this weekend’s round of league fixtures, they play travel away to high-flying Fulham, who are seventh.
That wouldn’t be an easy game even with a fully fit squad, so Arteta will and Arsenal will no doubt be taking all the precautionary measures possible to isolate and drive out any possible spreading of the bug.
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