Arsenal academy chief Per Mertesacker has indicated that off-field concerns may have taken former team-mate Mesut Ozil's focus away from his performances on the pitch.
Ozil has not played a minute of football since the Premier League's restart in June and was not named in Arsenal's Europa League squad. A similar fate is expected to befall the 32-year-old tomorrow (October 20) when the club confirm their 25 man party for the remainder of the Premier League.
Arsenal figures have refused to discuss at great lengths the reasons behind Ozil's absence, all the more notable considering Mikel Arteta had brought him in from the cold on his appointment and started him in every Premier League game between his appointment and the coronavirus-enforced shutdown of the league.
However a consistent message from technical director Edu and manager Arteta has been that Ozil has not trained to the level required to earn a spot in the first team.
Ozil and his wife welcomed their first child in March and Mertesacker suggested that his changing life away from football may be impacting matters on-field even if the Arsenal chief does not see any sign of an attitude change from the club's best-paid player.
"A lot has changed away from the field," Mertesacker said on the Klick and Rush podcast. "He got married, has a family. Perhaps his focus has changed. Nevertheless, he is still happy and happy to play football.
"He's the only player I've played with for three teams - Bremen, Arsenal and also at the DFB. So I'm very sorry that he's currently in a situation where he's not really used."
Ozil's absence from the Europa League squad would not have come as any great surprise to the World Cup winner, who featured on the bench for Arsenal's second and third matches post restart and was not included in another matchday squad from then on. Indeed he was not even part of the extended group at the FA Cup Final that included injured players.
Discussing his decision to leave Ozil and Sokratis out of the Europa League selection last week, Arteta said: "I spoke to them face to face before I released the squad and I explained the reason why the numbers that we had. It was really difficult to tell them that, but these are the restrictions and the rules.
"We have to respect that decision and try to train in the best possible way to help the team in that moment and see what happens in December."
