Gobsmacking comments from Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger today that Mesut Ozil heard a crack in his ruptured left knee before half-time in Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea on October 5.
In an exclusive interview with beIN Sports, which will be broadcast on Thursday and again on Saturday, Wenger said:
‘He had a little problem just before he went out at half-time. He had a little pain with his knee, he felt a crack.
‘I said to our physio to keep an eye on him and if there was anything wrong with him, tell me because when you’re 1-0 down, you want to keep your offensive players on the pitch.
‘I am deeply shocked. He wasn’t involved in a collision with anybody.
‘It was just after making a pass with the outside of his foot that he injured his leg so it’s very hard to believe that you can damage your ligament with just making a simple pass and it’s very difficult to take that he will be out for a while.’
So to be clear. Ozil hears a crack in his knee in the first half against Chelsea, which was his his knee rupturing. At half-time he tells someone at the club about the injury, yet they sent him back out for another 45 minutes of football. How is that possible?
I am not sure what is worse. That Wenger played an injured player for the full 45 minutes of the second half or that someone on the medical staff passed him fit to go back out and play?
Because of that negligence, Ozil will out for up to three months, yet Wenger does think that Arsenal have an medical or fitness problem, despite leading the Premier League in games missed for the better part of the last decade.
“I am not a great believer in coincidences but this time it really is coincidence.
You cannot say our injuries are preparation mistakes. The big injuries we have are really accidental.
‘Scientifically we are quite good. We have been hit hard after seven games. I would never have thought we would have had so many bad injuries.’