Arsene Wenger has revealed 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.
The Arsenal midfielder bravely battled through the pain barrier and played the full 90 minutes before German team doctors confirmed the full extent of his injury when he reported for international duty.
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.
ARSENE'S INJURY WOES
Olivier Giroud - ankle - three months
Mesut Ozil - knee Injury -three months
Mathieu Debuchy - ankle - two months
Laurent Koscielny - achilles - three weeks
Aaron Ramsey - hamstring - two weeks
Yaya Sanogo - hamstring - Close to return
Mikel Arteta - calf strain - Close to return
Serge Gnabry - knee - Close to return
Theo Walcott - knee - Close to return
Nacho Monreal - back - Close to return
‘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.’
He added: ‘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.’
