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Team news: Arsenal boss confirms double blow, 4 players to miss Leicester trip

By on May 8, 2018

mesut ozil arsenal

Arsene Wenger has confirmed he’ll be without four players for Arsenal’s trip to the King Power to face Leicester City on Wednesday  night.

The boss spoke at his pre-match press conference this morning ahead of the trip to Leicester and he confirmed that Mesut Ozil will miss the game and is unlikely to play again this season.

The German international came under fire for his poor performance against Atletico Madrid last week and many predicted he wouldn’t be in the squad to take on Burnley at the weekend.

Sure enough Ozil wasn’t involved during the 5-0 win on Sunday with the club claiming he has a back injury which sparked rumours that the playmaker picks and chooses which games he plays.

Wenger has hit back at those reports by insisting that Ozil is nursing a genuine back injury that hampered him during the Madrid game and it will be serious enough to see him miss our last two games.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

“Maybe [his season is over]. He was in yesterday [Monday] for treatment and he still has a back problem. Even at half-time in Madrid, he had that problem. I think it’s highly unlikely that he will play again before the end of the season because he doesn’t train.

“Football players [do not choose when to play]. I can understand that because you [the media] are all positive spirits who see everything negatively, but when he’s injured, he’s injured.

“It looks like that sometimes, when a player can cover the pain for one game, but then after that there’s a recurrence of inflammation. That’s what happened to him. He wanted to play on Sunday. It was an enjoyable game to play but at the moment he’s injured.”

The boss also confirmed another blow by saying Santi Cazorla won’t play any part in our final two games as it’s too risky to rush him back after 19 months on the sidelines with a serious Achilles injury.

With Santi’s contract set to expire in June and doubts over whether he’ll be given an extension, many fans were hoping to see him in an Arsenal shirt again this season but understandably the club aren’t prepared to take that risk.

Wenger also confirmed that Laurent Koscielny will be out for at least 6 months after having surgery on his ruptured Achilles while Mohamed Elneny is still out so we’ll be without four players against Leicester.