Firing Gunners pose questions over Ozil’s future

LONDON: Mesut Ozil has missed Arsenal’s last four matches and may be absent again when the Gunners host Huddersield Town on Saturday.

The 30-year-old playmaker is being treated for a back problem and manager Unai Emery has hinted that he could be passed fit if he comes through sessions with the club’s physiotherapist unscathed.

Thegermanhadbeenonthetraininggroundonthursday“runningand touching the ball”, Emery told a press conference.

But even if Ozil is given the green lighttoreturntherearenoguarantees thatemerywillpicktheclub’shighest earner, even for the bench.

That despite being a World Cup winner in 2014, and a player with skills few others on the planet can reproduce, especially when it comes to setting up colleagues to score.

Emery, it seems, had already decidedhecoulddowithouttheformer Germanyinternationalinhiscomprehensive overhaul of a squad that had forgotten how to win trophies under previous manager Arsene Wenger.

It was the Frenchman who had sanctioned a salary-doubling, £350,000-a-week,three-yearcontract extension for Ozil just three months before stepping down as manager.

Ozil’s omission from the starting line-up at Bournemouth on Nov.25 wasthebigrevealtoaworldthatcould not fail to notice. Emery’s explanation couldhardlybemisinterpretedeither: Ozil was named on the bench -- and left there for the entire game -- at Bournemouth.