Update (Friday 2 October). Thursday’s international matches, which this article named as the key signal, went well for both players. Bruno Fernandes played against Denmark in Copenhagen, provided two assists in Portugal’s 4-2 win (for Gonçalo Ramos and Vitinha) and was only replaced in stoppage time. Fans voted him player of the match, and match reports noted no sign of the injury. Martin Ødegaard started for Norway in Cardiff and set up Oscar Bobb’s goal in the 10th minute. Norway lost 2-1 to Wales after playing with ten men from the 46th minute. Neither player has a flag in the game.
What this changes: the case for patience in this article has held up. If you did not panic-sell Bruno or Ødegaard, there is no reason to do it now. The last signal before the deadline (Saturday 10 October, 11:00 UK) will be the managers’ press conferences, and Manchester United v Tottenham kicks off at 17:30 UK, after the deadline. The same “injury in the media, no flag in the game” pattern also played out the other way with Nico O’Reilly: on Wednesday, when we covered the Man City verdict, the game had not flagged him yet, and on Thursday he received a 75% flag (10.9% ownership). Van Hecke (foot, 6.5%) and Mykolenko (leg, 4.2%) have new flags too. The latest status for everyone is in our Injury Centre.
This week the game flagged Isak, Gakpo and Havertz. It has not flagged two players whose injuries the media are reporting: Bruno Fernandes, owned by 38.5 percent of managers, and Martin Ødegaard, owned by 19.8 percent. In the game both show as “available” today, with no news attached.
Bruno Fernandes: missed the Norway game, playing through pain for several matches
On Sunday 27 September in Oslo, Portugal beat Norway 2-1 and Bruno did not play. Head coach Jorge Jesus explained that the Manchester United captain arrived at the camp with an injury from his club, that the player himself said he had felt the pain for about three matches, and that he did not want to risk making it worse ahead of the Denmark game on Thursday. Before that, Bruno still played 89 minutes against Wales despite the pain (according to Read Man Utd).
According to Goal.com the problem began after the Champions League game against Sabah, when Bruno was seen limping, and he barely passed fitness tests before the games against Manchester City and Fulham. The nature of the injury has not been disclosed. Portugal are keeping him in the squad for the Denmark game (Thursday 1 October, 19:45 UK time, Copenhagen), and United, as Read Man Utd points out, have not issued a medical statement, so the head coach’s comments are the only guide for now. Patrick Dorgu has also returned to United for assessment (hamstring, taken off in Denmark’s game against Wales), but he is owned by only 0.5 percent of managers.
Ødegaard: kicked after releasing the ball, finished the match
In the same game in Oslo, Bernardo Silva kicked Ødegaard on the ankle in added time, after Ødegaard had already got rid of the ball, and was booked for it. The Norwegian played to the end but left the stadium limping. He describes it as a knock to the ankle, expects swelling and hopes it will be fine within a few days. There is no report of serious damage. Norway play Wales on Thursday 1 October, so whether Ødegaard takes the field will be the first indicator. It is worth remembering that he has had ankle and foot problems before.
Who has a flag and who does not
| Player | Club | Ownership | Flag in the game | Our rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bruno Fernandes | Man United | 38.5% | none | 89 — buy |
| Ødegaard | Arsenal | 19.8% | none | 83 — buy |
| Isak | Liverpool | 22.4% | 75% (thigh) | 74 — hold |
| Gakpo | Liverpool | 12.5% | 75% (ankle) | 84 — buy |
| Rice | Arsenal | 11.7% | 75% | 84 — buy |
| Havertz | Arsenal | 8.3% | 75% (thigh) | 74 — hold |
The two most-owned names on this list are exactly the ones the game is silent about. Bruno is also the third most-sold player of the week (191 thousand sellers against 41 thousand buyers) and has dropped 0.1 to £11.9m. Some managers are clearly reacting to the reports faster than the status in the game.
Why the game has not flagged them
Flags in the game are usually based on information from the clubs. In both cases, as far as we know, the club has not yet issued a statement: the information comes from the national team coach and the player himself. It is the same mechanism we described with Konsa and João Pedro: the data in the game can lag one step behind the reports.
Our model on this: honestly
The model does not know any of this. Bruno’s rating is 89 (“buy”), and the captain picks module ranks him third with the best profile of the five: risk 33, upside 90. It is the same blind spot we have written about before: until the game has a flag, the model assumes the player is healthy. The Recommended Squad for Gameweek 6 does not include Bruno or Ødegaard, but not because of the injuries, which the model does not know about; it simply picks cheaper players at the same rating, among them Mbeumo, Saka and Rogers.
It is also worth looking at the results themselves. Bruno has 31 points this season, 23 of them in a single gameweek (the hat-trick against Ipswich, which we covered in the Gameweek 2 review), and 2 points in each of the other four. We are not suggesting a link with the injury, since nobody knows exactly when it started, but at £11.9m it is important context for the decision.
What to do before the Gameweek 6 deadline
The deadline is on Saturday 10 October at 11:00 UK time, eleven days from now. Arsenal v Leeds kicks off at 12:30 and Manchester United host Tottenham only at 17:30, the last match of the day. You will therefore learn Bruno’s team news after the deadline. Free transfers roll over up to a maximum of five, so nothing forces you to move today.
- You own Bruno: do not sell today. There is no information that he will miss Gameweek 6, and selling for £11.9m on reports about an unspecified injury is a decision in the dark. The key signals are Thursday’s Denmark v Portugal game (whether he starts and for how long) and the United manager’s press conference before the match, usually on Thursday or Friday.
- You plan to captain a United player: hold the decision until 8-9 October and choose a vice-captain from a different match than your captain. If you decide to move away from Bruno, the model rates Saka just as highly (89, £9.5m, 13.7%) and Rogers too (89, £7.7m, 40.5%), and Mbeumo only slightly lower (88, £7.9m, 20.6%).
- You own Ødegaard: wait for Norway’s Thursday game against Wales. If he plays without problems, the matter is closed. If you did have to replace him, the model rates cheaper midfielders higher as well: Tavernier (88, £6.1m, 6.8%), Barnes (88, £6.1m, 5.6%) and Schade (87, £6.2m, 11.4%).
Check your whole squad on 8 or 9 October, not on Saturday morning: after an international break the list of flags usually grows at the last minute, as we wrote about with Semenyo and Brobbey and Palmer and Rice. The current picture is always in the Injury Centre, and the next five gameweeks are covered in our fixture analysis and the AI rankings.
Injury information comes from media reports dated 27-29 September (Read Man Utd, Goal.com, Sports Illustrated, Rotowire) and from official Fantasy Premier League data read on 29 September. Ratings come from our own model based on artificial intelligence. We are not affiliated with the Premier League or Fantasy Premier League.