CAPE TOWN – Lukas Podolski has hit out at Arsenal’s treatment of Mesut Ozil, saying he has been left baffled by the situation.
Ozil, the highest paid player at Arsenal, has found himself on the sidelines this season, and has not bee registered for the club’s Europa League and Premier League campaigns.
Podolski, who played alongside Ozil at Arsenal and at international level with Germany, made his feelings known in an explosive Instagram post.
“I want to know the background, but I generally think with a player who is now in his sixth or seventh years with the club, to kick him completely out of the squad that’s not okay,” Podolski told German publication Bild about his fellow 2014 World Cup winner.
“You don’t do something like that, and I don’t know if something happened in the background or not but even if he’s done something, you don’t do it.
“I don’t know, of course, if there is something going on in the background or not but even if there is something like that you don’t do it, mainly so you can keep his class on the pitch,” said the Polish-born German legend.