Özil ruptured a knee ligament in October and didn’t make it back until January. Technically he missed every festive game, but he wasn’t playing before that anyway. You can’t take a break if you aren’t playing.
No injuries over the festive period. The German did miss one league game on January 17th, but played three in eight days between 26th December and 2nd January.
Özil’s knee issues make him miss the New Year’s Eve match against West Brom. He then plays Chelsea, but misses the 14th January match against Bournemouth. This is a recurrence of a knee problem that’s affected the 29-year-old all season. The injury caused him to miss multiple matches, home and away, big teams and small.
6. Conclusion
If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might just about have enough evidence here to put a case together.
In 2014/15 and 2015/16 there’s no evidence of anything close to a winter break, so those seasons don’t help so you’d be best not mentioning them.
The other three years, the German missed a couple of games each time. Not two weeks’ worth, just two games, but that should be enough evidence for someone only looking for the bare minimum as proof.
But I’m not a conspiracy theorist.
The more sensible explanation is that Özil’s body just isn’t used to playing so many games. He’s not feigning injury to get a rest, nor are the club giving him one beyond normal rotation.