Martin Odegaard was left out of the squad against Newcastle and Sevilla prior to the international break. The Gunners' captain has been struggling with a hip injury in recent weeks and has failed to feature since the Carabao Cup defeat against West Ham.

Despite his ongoing hip problem, Odegaard's omission for the defeat against Newcastle at St James’ Park and the home Champions League win against Sevilla was as a result of an unrelated issue, football.london understands. The Gunners captain took a ball to the face during a training session at London Colney in the lead-up to the loss on Tyneside.

Odegaard failed a fitness test ahead of the loss against Eddie Howe's side after being checked over for concussion. Concussion rules state players must rest for six days and be symptom-free before returning to action.

The 24-year-old would have been able to return to action against Burnley last weekend - but due to his hip problem he has remained on the sidelines. Mikel Arteta is hopeful his captain can be passed fit to face Brentford after the international break.

Odegaard then missed last Wednesday’s victory over Sevilla before missing Saturday’s Premier League win over Burnley. The 24-year-old was selected for Norway duty ahead of the international break - but has subsequently withdrawn ahead of fixtures against Faroe Islands and Scotland - and will now remain in England during the international break as he continues to recover from a hip issue.

Norway had been braced for the 24-year-old's absence and their manager Stale Solbakken revealed last week that no replacement would be called up. “As for Martin Odegaard, we await the situation,” he said.

“If it happens that he has to report absent, a replacement will not be called in for him. This was taken into account in the [original squad] selection.

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"The club (Arsenal) are so reserved so I don’t know how much I should say about it. I have known so much about the injury so I’ve never really planned with Martin.

"I can say that it is a very normal football injury that you’ll very likely recover completely from. It’s not career-threatening."