Mesut Ozil ‘told face-to-face’ by Edu he would not be included in Arsenal’s Europa League squad

Mesut Ozil was “told face-to-face” by Arsenal’s technical director Edu that he would not be included in the Europa League squad.

The German appears to have no future at the Emirates, with Arteta freezing him out this season.

Ozil was omitted from the squad to take on Dundalk, Molde and Rapid Wien in the group stage of the tournament, with William Saliba and Sokratis Papastathopoulos also left out.

And Edu has detailed how Ozil was informed, as well as conversations with Arteta on who to select as part of the 17 foreign players permitted.

“We needed to manage the number of foreign players in the squad because we are only allowed to have 17 on our list,” Edu explained.

"I talked to Mikel about the players who were probably going to be left out and we discussed how to treat that challenging situation.

"The way we did it was to sit down with the players concerned and to be open with them and I also spoke to their agents.

“The only way to do that was face-to-face and to clearly explain why Mikel has made that decision. And I think we did it quite well.”

The 31-year-old still has nine months remaining on his contract, which is thought to be worth as much as £350,000 per week.

Discussions to prematurely terminate the deal have been unsuccessful, with the World Cup winner resisting efforts to cut ties.

Attention will now turn to the 25-man Premier League squad, with Ozil also expected to be omitted.