Inter Milan have reportedly given up on their pursuit of Shkodran Mustafi and won’t be returning for him in January.

Italian outlet Calcio Mercato (via talkSPORT) claims that Inter will not be returning for Mustafi in January and are instead going to look elsewhere to bolster their back line.

Although it’s obviously not an official statement from the Serie A club by any means, it does sound rather definitive and comes coincidentally days after the 25-year-old centre-back put in a terrible challenge on West Brom’s Jay Rodriguez, which should have resulted in a penalty to Tony Pulis’s team.

Inter were allegedly very keen on Mustafi at the end of the summer transfer window and were supposedly taking him on loan with a view to buy him permanently next year but the rumoured move never went through. Arsenal apparently ‘pulled the plug’ at the last minute.

According to the BBC’s David Ornstein shortly after the window shut, Mustafi had asked to leave, which took the Gunners by surprise.

Arsenal had already lost Gabriel to Valencia and allowing another centre-back to go, particularly a first team regular, without replacing him would have been negligible at best.

It’s unclear whether Mustafi is going to actively pursue a move away from north London in January or why, but it seems that Inter won’t be his destination if he does go.

Considering Arsenal only singed him from Valencia in August 2016 for £35m, his sudden urge to leave seems odd.