After Arsenal’s 6-0 win over BATE Borisov on Thursday night, Arsene Wenger revealed that Shkodran Mustafi isn’t fit to face Southampton at the weekend.
Mustafi misses out on the trip to St. Mary’s on Sunday with what’s thought to be a muscular injury.
The centre-back was subbed off in the 15th minute of the Gunners’ 3-1 defeat at home to Manchester United last Saturday.
The German was taken off in favour of Alex Iwobi after his mistake led to Jesse Lingard’s first goal, which prompted Gooners to speculate that the 25-year-old was suffering from a bruised ego rather than a genuine injury.
This wasn’t helped after the match when Wenger admitted he didn’t have a clue why Mustafi had needed to be taken off in the first place.
However, it appears that either the defender is really overselling a fake injury because he’s embarrassed, or he has actually got a muscular problem. My guess is probably the latter.
Fortunately, it doesn’t seem serious since Wenger reckons he could even be fit for the West Ham game on Wednesday 13 December.
The news comes as a blow since Mustafi has been immense for Arsenal since his return from a hamstring injury. Obviously, we’ll just forget the United game ever happened…