Martin Keown doesn’t believe the reports on an injury to Mesut Özil, claiming the German just took himself out of the picture before Freddie Ljungberg could.

Ahead of the draw with Everton on Saturday, Arsenal posted team news revealing a ‘right foot’ injury to Mesut Özil. The club wrote that they would assess the 31-year-old for the game, but in the end, he didn’t travel.

Some didn’t believe the update though. Martin Keown told BT Sport he thinks Özil was just jumping before he was pushed.

“I’m not convinced to be honest,” Keown said. “He went off the pitch against City, he wasn’t best pleased, he didn’t look particularly injured on that occasion. He’s probably just taken himself out of it because he thinks that Freddie wouldn’t play him.”

Unfortunately for Özil, Ljungberg made it very clear in his press conference why he left the playmaker out. The interim boss didn’t hide behind the injury excuse, making it clear the exclusion was for disciplinary reasons.

Ljungberg did also stick by the line about the injury though, whether it’s true or not. There was no suggestion from the interim boss that the player was faking, just that he wasn’t in the squad for the game either way.

Mikel Arteta will be the one making the decisions on Özil from now on. Certainly, one of his first tests is to sort out whatever’s going on here.