Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is “moving forward” with his knee injury and hopes to be “back soon”.
Odegaard has been out of action since the start of last month after injuring his knee during Arsenal’s 2-0 win over West Ham.
The midfielder has missed Arsenal’s last seven games and he was also unable to play a part last week as Norway qualified for the World Cup.
The Gunners are next in action on Sunday, when they host local rivals Tottenham, and after that have huge games against Bayern Munich and Chelsea.
Odegaard has given a positive update ahead of those matches and revealed he is close to returning.
“It’s moving forward,” Odegaard told Norwegian broadcaster TV2 when asked on Sunday about his knee injury.
“The match today came a little too early...but it's starting to look better, so hopefully I'll be back soon.”
Odegaard was with the Norway squad last week, despite being unable to play.
The midfielder is the captain of his country and wanted to be with his team-mates to support them off the pitch.
Norway booked a place at next year’s World Cup after beating Estonia and Italy.
“We’ve been working for this for a long, long time,” said Odegaard, ahead of the win over Italy on Sunday. “It was important for me to be here with them
“The World Cup is one of the biggest things there is. It’s a dream I’ve had since I was little. To play for the national team and to play in the championship.
“I’ve been through a lot, I’ve been through a lot of tough downs. There have been some playoffs, there have been a lot of tough moments. So it’s great to be where we are now.”
