Tuesday, 25th November, 2014
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has explained the reason behind Olivier Giroud's exclusion from the 25-man squad for the club's Champions League group stage games.
The Frenchman came on as a substitute in the Gunners' Premier League match against Manchester United on Saturday, but will not feature for his team against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
Giroud, who had suffered an ankle injury in August, was initially supposed to be out of action until January. Wenger therefore kept him out of the list that was submitted by the 2nd September deadline.
"Exactly [we thought his injury would mean he wouldn’t be available]", Wenger said at a press conference today, when asked whether the injury was why Giroud was not included.
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The 65-year-old also took time to add that his team bought Danny Welbeck during the time they were supposed to submit their squad list and naturally put the former Manchester United player on the list instead of Giroud.
"At the time, we bought Danny Welbeck and we had to put him on the list. Giroud was supposed to be unavailable for the qualifying group stage and we put him out.
"He is coming back early and that is good news, but of course he's not on the list of the 25 selected players."
Arsenal, who need one point from the last two group stage matches against Dortmund and Galatasaray, can register Giroud for the last 16 stage of the Champions League.
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