Arsenal hit with major injury scare as captain Martin Odegaard limps off in agony with ankle injury just six days before the north London derby against Tottenham

MARTIN ODEGAARD is a major injury risk for the North London Derby after limping off on international duty in tears.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta will already be without key midfielder Declan Rice following his bonkers red card against Brighton.

And now the Gunners boss is sweating on his skipper's fitness in what could be another bitter blow.

Odegaard, 25, captained Norway in their Nations League Group B3 clash against Austria.

But he was in agony just after the hour mark after a seemingly innocuous 50-50 tussle for possession, rolling his left ankle.

Odegaard immediately went down clutching the joint, writhing around in agony as replays showed the severity of the incident with Christoph Baumgartner.

TV cameras cut to the crowd and showed Odegaard's girlfriend Helene Spilling looking on concerned.

The playmaker was treated by physios on the pitch with his head in his hands before hobbling off gingerly crying, assisted by the medics as he was barely able to put any weight on his left foot.

Baumgartner apologized for the collision - although the RB Leipzig forward was not at fault for the injury in the genuine battle for the ball.

Erling Haaland gave his team-mate a touch of consolation as the star headed off.

But ironically, the injury could boost Haaland's title hopes.

Arsenal face a trip to Spurs on Sunday afternoon - before their opening Champions League clash next Thursday away at Atalanta then a visit to the Etihad to take on the champions on September 22.

And the fear of being without their influential skipper is now very real.

Rice's suspension rules him out of the clash at Tottenham while new £32million midfielder Mikel Merino is sidelined with a fractured shoulder picked up in his very first Gunners training session.

And should Odegaard also be unavailable for the derby, Arteta will need to experiment.

Thomas Partey, Jorginho, and dropping Kai Havertz in could be the most likely option - with the manager unlikely to turn to the inexperienced youngsters Myles Lewis-Skelly or Ethan Nwaneri for such a high-profile match.

Elsewhere, it has already been a costly international break for Arteta with new defender Riccardo Calafiori picking up a bizarre injury and leaving the Italy camp following the freak incident.

In Oslo, Felix Horn Myhre's opener was canceled out by ex-Manchester United loanee Marcel Sabitzer.

But Haaland grabbed the victory ten minutes from time after initially being flagged offside before a lengthy VAR check proved he was on.