Unai Emery has revealed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been struggling with an infection for more than a fortnight and couldn’t wait any longer to undergo a sinus procedure.
The 29-year-old is a doubt to face Leicester on Sunday lunchtime having missed Wednesday 3-1 defeat at Wolves which leaves Arsenal’s hopes of a Premier League top four finish firmly in the balance.
Aubameyang trained on Friday and could be available at the King Power Stadium if he suffers no adverse reaction to a procedure Emery stated the striker had been delaying for some time.
Standard Sport understands the issue dates back to the beginning of the month when Aubameyang was left on the bench for successive Premier League matches against Newcastle and Everton.
“We were waiting but then the doctor told us we needed to be as quick as possible for him,” explained Emery.
“We decided two weeks ago to do it for Wednesday. Otherwise it would have had to be for this game on Sunday. It was not possible for him to miss the match against Valencia, or Brighton – it was not possible.
“We also decided not to do it against Crystal Palace or Napoli. But the doctor said to do it as quickly as possible because he needed it done. We decided this match was the best in those weeks.”
Aubameyang scored the winning goal against Watford and got on the scoresheet again in last weekend’s defeat to Palace despite suffering with the condition.
Arsenal need to win at Leicester to revive their top four challenge after back-to-back defeats and Emery reiterated his belief that qualifying for the Champions League is harder in England than anywhere else.
“The Premier League is the most difficult championship in all the world,” he said.
“There is not another country with this difficulty to take the top four places and play in the Champions League. Maybe now in Spain, they have something similar – Valencia are struggling for the top four also. But here the biggest teams in the world play in one championship.”
