Arsenal manager Unai Emery has highlighted that midfielder Mesut Ozil remains a potential injury doubt for the club’s Premier League clash against Manchester United on Wednesday night.
The former Germany international has missed the previous two matches against Vorskla and Tottenham Hotspur with a back spasm and it appears that his absence may continue from the matchday squad when the Gunners make the trip to Manchester.
Speaking in a news conference covered by ESPN, Emery highlighted that Ozil has been training aside from his teammates and he is unsure whether the World Cup winner will recover in time for the late Premier League kickoff on Wednesday.
He said: “Today he was working alone, I don’t know if he’s OK for Wednesday. I said yesterday he’s had backache since last Tuesday. He couldn’t play in Kiev [against FC Vorskla] or yesterday. At the moment, I don’t know if he can play in Manchester.”
Nevertheless, Ozil’s position in the starting lineup remains far from certain at the moment with Emery recently expressing concern over the German’s physical attributes which contributed to him being an unused substitute against Bournemouth last month.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi have been the regular starters in the attack alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the past two matches but Emery should seriously consider dropping the former two to the substitutes’ bench.
In their places, Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette are likely to make the first XI after their match-defining contributions from the bench against Spurs where the latter was paired alongside Aubameyang upfront.
