Why Christos Tzolis refused to come off as Arsenal await hamstring injury scan | OneFootball

Summer signing is the latest Arsenal player to pick up a knock during the international break

Arsenal are waiting for the results of a scan to learn the severity of Christos Tzolis' hamstring injury.

The winger was forced off inside the opening 20 minutes of Greece's draw with the Netherlands on Thursday night.

Tzolis, who had a goal disallowed for offside a few minutes earlier, pulled up with a right hamstring issue.

He initially insisted on playing on but Greece boss Ivan Jovanovic made the decision to bring him off shortly afterwards.

The 24-year-old is expected to return to Arsenal and miss Greece's match at home to Germany this weekend.

He is undergoing scans in Greece on Friday afternoon for an initial assessment on the injury and an indication of how long any spell on the sidelines will be.

Tzolis will then travel back to London and further tests will be undertaken by the Arsenal medical staff.

Explaining why Tzolis was allowed to play on at first before he was then substituted, Jovanovic revealed the winger was insistent on not being withdrawn.

Jovanovic said: "How do I handle it? You tell me?  I'm his coach, I tell him to go out and he says 'I'm not going out'.

"How do I handle it? So, this is something that I characterise as the Greek mentality and all these kids who come to play in the national team regardless of age. I think it was a scene that everyone saw, those who were close.

I told him to get out, because I suspected that he wouldn't have done that if he hadn't felt something

Ivan Jovanovic

"I told him to get out, because I suspected that he wouldn't have done that if he hadn't felt something. We don't know how big the damage is today, but I hoped it was just a twitch, something temporary.

"I didn't have any reason to be honest, because these aren't qualifiers, they're the Nations League. First and foremost I wanted to protect the player.

"He didn't want to stay near me to go out. Instead, he went to defend the corner. And then he went out. These are our players."