Arsenal's Mesut Ozil & Sead Kolasinac '100%' ready to play

Published on: 15 August 2019

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Mesut Ozil & Sead Kolasinac 100% mentally ready - Emery

Arsenal manager Unai Emery is "100%" confident Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac are mentally ready to play against Burnley on Saturday.

The pair were left out of the Gunners' season-opening win over Newcastle because of "further security fears" after being involved in a carjacking attempt by an armed gang in July.

Midfielder Ozil and left-back Kolasinac have returned to training.

Two men have since been charged with a public order offence.

Arsenal pulled Ozil, 30, and 25-year-old Kolasinac from the away game at St James' Park because of "further security incidents".

"The welfare of our players and their families is always a top priority," the club said at the time.

"We have taken this decision following discussion with the players and their representatives."

In his pre-match news conference, Emery said former Germany player Ozil and Bosnia-Herzegovina international Kolasinac's "mentality is focused on us, for training and the match".

He said: "My focus is to be positive and think the players are 100 per cent with their mind here. I want to help them be normal with us, training, thinking and above all taking the focus for each match."

Emery said his only "focus and direction" is Saturday's game when asked if former World Cup winner Ozil will start amid interest from MLS side DC United.

Ferhat Ercan, of Highgate, and Salaman Ekinci, of Tottenham, were arrested on 8 August outside the north London home of Ozil, and have since been charged.

Mr Ercan and Mr Ekinci, both 27, are due to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on 6 September.

Police said they were treating the public order offence and the attempted car-jacking as separate incidents.

Source: bbc.com

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