Arsenal have confirmed that Sead Kolasinac will join Schalke on loan for the remainder of this season.
The Bosnian is set to re-join the club where came through as a youth player in the hope of saving them from relegation.
Kolasinac joined the Gunners on a free transfer from S04 in 2017. Since then he has gone on to make 119 appearances scoring 5 times, and winning the 2020 FA Cup.
However, this season he has found game time hard to come by playing just once in the Premier League.
Arsenal's technical director Edu pointed to this as a reason for the move.
“Sead needs to be playing regularly, so we have decided together that a move back to Germany with Schalke will benefit him at this moment," he told the club's official website.
"We will be keeping in close contact with Sead, and wish him huge success for the remainder of the season with Schalke.”
Kolasinac was one of several players who came close to leaving in the summer, with Bayer Leverkusen reportedly among the club's interested in him.
But he has now returned to the club where he spent five years as a first team player, making 123 appearances.
He will be hoping to help Schalke turn their campaign around. Die Königsblauen are currently bottom of the Bundesliga having failed to win a single game this season so far.
Kolasinac's move is set to be one of many loan departures that Arsenal will sanction across the January window to reduce the size of their bloated squad.
Mikel Arteta confirmed this would be the Gunners' approach in his press conference ahead of their trip to West Brom.
"Well, we have a large squad. We knew that," he said. "A lot of things that should have happened in the summer we could not accomplish them for different reasons."
" There are a lot of players that are going to go on loan. They are going to leave. And that’s the priority at the moment because we cannot sustain the numbers that we have in certain positions.
"We are looking to do that. And then we will see if we have the right opportunities in the positions that we need some more help we are working with the club to try to address them."
Kolasinac's move will come into effect on January 4th, and is subject to the completion of legal and regulatory processes.
