Arsenal: Is there more to Mesut Ozil injury mystery?

Jens Lehmann has hypothesised that Mesut Ozil’s poor World Cup is because of injury. Is there more to the Arsenal midfielder’s mysterious absences last season?

It was a strange, old World Cup for Germany. As an Englishman, I was very pleased to see old Die Mannschaft fall at the group stages for the first time since 1938. As a Mesut Ozil and Arsenal fan, though, and as someone who managed to swindle the defending champions in the neighbourhood sweepstake, I was somewhat disappointed.

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And it is Mesut Ozil who has been facing much of the criticism from home and abroad following his team’s ignominious exit.

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While there are arguments on either side as to whether Ozil actually played well or not — this is seemingly an endless debate that will happen with every game that he plays, for club or country –, Jens Lehmann has offered an explanation as to why the midfielder has bore the brunt of much of the blame:

"“Obviously, I saw that (criticism) from a very close distance last year. And what comes out is that if you want to play a good World Cup it doesn’t start two or three weeks before the World Cup. It starts actually at the beginning of the season ahead of the World Cup. You need to find your rhythm you need to have a good pre-season. You need to practice a lot, you need to participate in training sessions, and unfortunately, Mesut has been prone to injury quite a lot. I remember the last three games for Arsenal he couldn’t play and he couldn’t even train. In January and February in the winter he didn’t have a lot of training sessions. And so if a player goes into a tournament like that then it’s always a small disadvantage.”"

Certainly, Ozil’s injury record last season was a point of contention and great uncertainty. He was mysteriously ill for several games, then suffered a back injury to close out the season that many questioned the validity of, and struggled to enjoy a rhythm of regular starts as Lehmann highlights.

Many doubted Ozil’s integrity when it came to his injuries, myself included. His illnesses were suspicious at best and they tarnished his reputation so that when he actually was ill or injured at short notice, it was extremely difficult to believe. A case of the boy who cried wolf, for certain.

But Lehmann, who worked as a first-team coach last season and would have had a unique and close insight into Ozil, his training schedules, his fitness levels during the season, and the honesty of his unavailability, is seemingly quite happy to posit that Ozil was not fully match-sharp at the World Cup after a season of inconsistent fitness. And if Lehmann is not doubting of Ozil’s fitness, then who am I to disagree?

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Perhaps, then, there is more to the Ozil injury issues than was initially thought. Perhaps he was really suffering from serious and nagging problems. It’s all still a mystery and any opinion on the matter is little more than speculation. Let’s just hope that he can get fit with a little rest over the summer ahead of next season because if it happens again, serious questions will be asked.