Unai Emery has confirmed Mesut Ozil will be in the matchday squad for Arsenal’s dead rubber against Qarabag on Thursday.
The 30-year-old has not played for the Gunners since 11 November after initially being dropped before suffering with back spasms.
Arsenal have already qualified top of Group E and with the hectic festive domestic schedule ahead, Ozil may have expected to sit out a match in which Emery will rotate heavily and blood several youngsters.
However, the Gunners head coach said: “Tomorrow he is in the group, there are 18 players in the squad for this match and I am going to decide if he plays tomorrow from the beginning or during the match in the 90 minutes.
Emery also confirmed club captain Laurent Koscielny will make his first start since May after undergoing Achilles surgery on his right leg and could be in contention for Sunday’s Premier League match at Southampton if coming through unscathed.
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Arsenal have issues at centre-back this weekend with Shkodran Mustafi (hamstring) and Rob Holding (knee) injured while Sokratis Papastathopoulos is suspended.
“We are going to look also if he can play 90 minutes or less minutes in this game,” added Emery.
“We can use another player in this position, someone like Nacho Monreal, who is also with us and in his career he played in this position [before].
“We are going to decide but the first is to think about the match tomorrow because we need to receive information on how he can feel tomorrow.”
