• Premier League

Ozil 'felt crack' in his knee at Chelsea - but carried on

Mesut Ozil has been ruled out until the start of the New Year © Getty Images

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Arsene Wenger has revealed Mesut Ozil "felt a crack" in his knee during Arsenal's Premier League clash with Chelsea earlier this month, but rejected claims the club's medical staff misdiagnosed the ligament injury that is set to keep him out for the rest of 2014.

Ozil returned for the second half and completed the full game at Stamford Bridge despite the discomfort he reported to the club's medical staff, but it has since emerged he suffered serious damage to his knee during the 2-0 defeat.

The extent of Ozil's injury was only discovered when he joined up with the Germany squad for their Euro 2016 qualifiers against Poland and the Republic of Ireland, as he was promptly sent back to his club with German medical chiefs suggesting he would be out for up to 12 weeks.

Arsenal released a statement suggesting it was too soon to make such judgments on Ozil's injury, but Wenger has said in an interview with beIN Sports that he is shocked by the extent of the damage his player has suffered.

"I am deeply shocked. He wasn't involved in a collision with anybody," said Wenger, in quotes appearing on the Daily Mail website.

"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 had a little problem just before he went out at half-time. He had a little pain with his knee, he felt a crack. 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."

The incident has raised fresh questions over Arsenal's response to another of their star player being struck down by injury, with Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud among those currently recovering on the sidelines.

Yet Wenger was quick to downplay suggestions that his medical staff are under suspicion over the club's enduring injury problems.

"I am not a great believer in coincidences, but this time it really is coincidence," added Wenger. "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."

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