Unai Emery insists Mesut Ozil needs rest despite playing just 71 minutes of football this season as the Arsenal head coach left the forward at home for the Europa League tie with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Ozil, 30, had not featured at all this season until he started Sunday’s 2-2 Premier League draw at Watford.
He missed the start of the season after being the target of an attempted carjacking alongside team-mate Sead Kolasinac, while illness also saw him miss out.
Kolasinac spoke about the incident for the first time and admitted it was tough to deal with but is now keen to move on.
“About what happened I don’t want to talk about it in details,” he said.
“It’s happened and it’s something that belongs to the past. The same with Mesut. We are back and we focus on our job and team. We have a very important match ahead here in Frankfurt.
“Well of course I’m happy to be back. Of course mentally this was hard, missing also training for a couple of days.
“I made up for it. I’m back and happy to be back with the team and able to perform with them on the pitch with the team.”
