Mesut Özil is set to miss Arsenal’s Saturday clash with West Ham, after sitting out of the team’s final training session on Friday.

Fans on Friday spotted that the German international wasn’t in any of Arsenal’s pre-match training pictures, which was the first hint that something might be up. Then The S*n reported that the 29-year-old is set to miss the West Ham match with illness.

Knowing The S*n, it’s likely they don’t actually have any inside information, and are just jumping on the social media observations about Özil’s absence in the online pictures. They know that labelling the playmaker “ill” will get a reaction, so that’s what they’ve done.

To know for sure if Özil is out with illness, we’ll have to wait for confirmation from Emery. Regardless, it does appear at this stage that the World Cup winner won’t be playing a part in the starting line up on Saturday.

That’s particularly disappointing given how well Özil usually performs against West Ham. In his last four appearances facing the Hammers, he’s scored three goals and assisted two. Hopefully Aaron Ramsey can step up in the German’s absence, as he’s the most likely to take up the spot in midfield.