Shkodran Mustafi has been left out of Germany’s squad for the 2018 World Cup this summer, according to the announcement on Tuesday.

The 2014 World Cup winners announced their squad for this year’s tournament on Twitter, and Shkodran Mustafi was a rather surprising omission. Mesut Özil was in as expected, but his Arsenal teammate didn’t make the cut.

https://twitter.com/DFB_Team_EN/status/996346205482430464

At this point it’s only a provisional squad, so it’s still possible there might be changes. Particularly if one of the players ends up picking up an injury in the next month. Otherwise though, Mustafi will just have to cheer on his country at home like most of the rest of us.

It’s a disappointing moment for the German, particularly given Arsenal’s struggles this season. The possibility of going to the World Cup is probably one of the things that kept him motivated through the difficult periods of the season, and now that’s been snatched away from him.

There were signs this might happen though. After Mustafi’s participation in the Confederations Cup last summer, he was left out of the most recent rounds of qualifiers and pre-season friendlies.

His form for Arsenal didn’t particularly make a compelling case to include him either. Hopefully he doesn’t take the news too hard.