Martin Odegaard is still some way off a return to fitness after being left out of Norway’s squad for the upcoming international break.

The 25-year-old has missed Arsenal’s last seven games across all competitions after sustaining an ankle injury while on international duty in September.

But according to Norway manager Stale Solbakken, Odegaard is still “far” from a return to fitness and has been left out of the squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures against Slovenia and Austria later this month.

Issuing an update on Odegaard after naming his 23-man squad on Tuesday, Solbakken said: “He is far from being in the squad. We will have to see how far he gets during this international break. It is possible that he will come, but it depends a little on his rehabilitation. I have not spoken to him in the past four or five days.”

Solbakken added: “That both Oscar [Bobb] and Martin are out at the same time – it would be naive to say that it doesn’t have a meaning. After all, we played the last 35 minutes against Austria without Martin.

“And [we] won that part of the match 1-0, so it’s not like we don’t think we can do it without him. But Martin is very important to the group and he has been among the best in every match in recent years.”

Last week, Mikel Arteta admitted he was pleased with how Arsenal have responded to Odegaard’s injury and hinted that he could be back in action before the end of the month.

” I think it will be a matter of weeks,” he said. “How long exactly, I cannot tell you. We might get a surprise (before the international break) but I think it’s unlikely.

“If you put me in this scenario before I started this season with the calendar that we were given, the fixtures that we had, the three away games that we had and the amount of injuries that we had to deal with and how we got out of that, I would be very, very pleased.

“It’s not just Martin, obviously he’s one of our best players and a player that has more impact on the team in many ways, but there were many others as well and the team has coped extremely well because we have an exceptional group.”