Arsenal's Christos Tzolis injury scare in Greece draw with Netherlands | OneFootball

Arsenal's Christos Tzolis lasted only 18 minutes of Greece's 2-2 Nations League draw with the Netherlands in Thessaloniki on Thursday, raising a fitness worry for Mikel Arteta before the Premier League returns.

The winger went down clutching his leg, received on-field treatment and looked distressed as he covered his face with his shirt. He then moved relatively freely and seemed keen to continue, prompting an unusual stand-off with head coach Ivan Jovanovic.

"How can I handle it, you tell me," Jovanovic said. "I’m his coach, I tell him to come out and he says, 'I’m not coming out'. I think it was a scene that everyone saw, those who were nearby. I told him to get out, because I suspected that he wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t felt something." He told Sport24.

"A coach’s decisions regarding substitutions and the suspected injury of a player, he does not make decisions without a medical opinion. We have doctors, and very good ones at that," he added. "Certainly first as a coach I have to take the decision to replace the player, because it was a muscular issue."

Tzolis eventually relented, dropping back to defend a corner before heading to the dugout. "We don’t know how much damage was done today, but I hoped it was just a twitch, something temporary," Jovanovic said.

Kai Havertz also picked up a knock against the Netherlands. Martin Odegaard took a heavy challenge from Bernardo Silva in a match with Portugal but was passed fit to feature on Thursday night.

Tzolis is expected to miss Greece's Nations League meeting with Germany this weekend and will undergo further assessment. Arsenal will hope for positive news with a congested fixture list looming.

Source: Goal.com

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”