Arsenal target Martin Odegaard has always had a strained relationship with Zidane - Daily Mail

Martin Odegaard trained apart from his team-mates in the gym at Real Madrid's Valdebebas training ground on Thursday.

But it was also because he hopes to resolve his future as quickly as possible and be out on loan by the time Madrid face Alaves on Saturday.

Martin Odegaard has appeared just nine times for Real Madrid this season and is set for a loan.

He has been on an odyssey of loans since choosing to move to Real Madrid and failing to make sufficient progress, at first in Zinedine Zidane's youth team 'Real Madrid Castilla'.

If there were, Odegaard would have been on course to win it last season before the coronavirus pandemic closed football down for two months.

Real Madrid star Luka Modric challenges Odegaard while he was playing for Real Sociedad.

Of Real Sociedad's first 21 games of last season Odegaard played 90 minutes in 19 of them.

Lingering tendonitis problems in his right knee hampered him during that run-in but it seemed he was fixed and good to go again at the start of this season when Zidane picked him for Real Madrid's first match of the new campaign.

Having previously agreed to let him stay at Real Sociedad for two seasons Real Madrid had recalled him in the summer in response to the economic effects of the pandemic preventing the club signing players.

That decision seems to have been taken by him after not playing any part in Real Madrid's Spanish Super Cup semi-final defeat against Athletic Bilbao last weekend.

Zidane has had a strained relationship with Odegaard since his time as Castilla boss - the pair are pictured during a draw with Villarreal back in November.

If he's fit there are no questions over his quality – just ask the Real Sociedad supporters who watched him play their team into the top four last season

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