With the news yesterday that the Germany doctors have diagnosed Mesut Ozil as “out for 10-12 weeks with partial lateral collateral ligament tear in left knee.” it is looking like our list of players on the treatment table is getting worse every season. The Gunners have issued their own statement which refuses to accept the Germany prognosis until our own medical team have assessed the damage.
The statement read: “Arsenal can confirm that midfielder Mesut Ozil is returning to London from international duty with Germany after picking up a knee injury during Sunday’s game at Chelsea.
“Ozil complained of a sore left knee after the game and the club advised the German FA to run medical checks when he joined up with his international squad.
“The club will make further assessments and it is too early to say how long Ozil may be out of action.”
Knowing Arsenal’s previous predictions of length of injury it would not surprise me if Ozil didn’t play again this season!
Less publicised is the fact that David Ospina has also been pulled out of Colombia’s friendlies against Canada and the USA after a recurrence of his thigh problem. I guess that is why Emiliano Martinez was on the bench for the Chelsea match last weekend?
Ozil now joins Olivier Giroud and Mathieu Debuchy on the long-term injury list, but the good news is that Theo Walcott and Serge Gnabry should be back in the squad after the international break. I’ll keep my fingers crossed on those two, but according to Wenger, Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta will be coming back to training shortly afterwards as well so should be fully fit in two or three weeks.
Nacho Monreal is back in the squad after his back injury, but Yaya Sanogo hasn’t been mentioned much since suffering “a small hamstring injury” against Leicester six weeks ago.
Looking at it sensibly, the predictions are for us to have most of our crocks back by the end of the month, and with a fairly easy run of fixtures coming up we should be able to cope. What we DON’T want is to lose another couple of players during the international matches….