Arsenal boss Unai Emery has confirmed the reason why he had to remove one of his key attacking midfielders from the squad ahead of the trip to Anfield on Saturday.

New Arsenal manager Unai Emery has been forced to rotate his squad in recent weeks due to the fixture pile up and the fact that several players have suffered injuries.

Mesut Ozil is one of the Arsenal stars who have not been given much playing time over the past two months despite featuring regularly in the early weeks of the season.

The 30-year-old, who is the Gunners’ highest paid player after extending his contract in January, is rumoured to be having issues with Emery who has not been afraid to drop him out of the squad when necessary.

Ozil was handed a rare start last weekend in the 3-1 victory over Burnley and he kept his place in the team a few days later against Brighton.

However, the German star was substituted at half time on Wednesday and to make matters worse, Ozil was completely left out of the squad to face Liverpool on Saturday.

Some rumours suggested the midfielder was removed from the squad solely based on Emery’s wishes but the Arsenal boss has confirmed – as claimed by BBC’s David Ornstein – that his absence was because of a knee injury.

“Yes.” Emery responded when asked if Ozil was injured.

“His knee. I don’t know if it’s big or not big, but it’s his knee.”

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