Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has broken his silence after being sent home early from the African Cup of Nations by Gabon.
The 32-year-old was given special dispensation to depart for AFCON earlier than teammates Nicolas Pepe, Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny, but ended up testing positive for COVID-19 in the build up to the tournament.
In the aftermath of that the Gabon Federation claimed that Aubameyang was suffering with a minor heart problem, although football.london understands that Arsenal's doctors were not concerned by the issue after speaking to the player themselves.
Despite that the Panthers confirmed earlier on Monday that the decision had been taken to send the Gunners forward home.
“Since yesterday, the decision was taken to send them home to their club,” Gabon coach Pierre Neveu said , referring to Aubameyang and team-mate Mario Lemina who was also sent home early after reportedly suffering with heart issues after contracting COVID in the build up to the tournament. “We can’t judge it here [in Cameroon], we can’t assess the pathology of Covid here.
“It’s important that Mario returns to Nice and Pierre returns to Arsenal,” he added. “It’s a decision that we’ve taken among ourselves.”
Rumours though have began to circle about why exactly the pair were sent home, and in reaction to these Lemina took to Instagram to give his side of the story.
"I don't want to feed the lies which seek to harm. I have nothing to do with it," the former Southampton midfielder said on a story.
"I am in pain for my national team who are surrounded by liars in search of a buzz. Good luck to you to for the rest of the competition and for national team squads in the future. Far from my eyes but close to my heart."
Aubameyang added that to his own story and has now taken to Twitter to further dispel rumours around his early departure.
"We have problems that are already complicated to solve, then on top of that there are rumours," the 32-year-old said.
"In short, we have health to take care of first and foremost, I won't go back on these false rumours and I sincerely hope that our team will go as far as possible."
It is unclear if Aubameyang will now be involved for Arsenal's upcoming fixtures against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup and Burnley in the Premier League this week.
Manager Mikel Arteta has refused to rule out a return for the 32-year-old who has not featured for the Gunners since being stripped of the club captaincy last month amid repeated disciplinary breaches.
"As I said before, we will address that game by game,” the Spaniard said when asked about his former skipper's future.
However, it seems unlikely that the former Borussia Dortmund man will play any part after being made to train away from the rest of the first team before he left for AFCON.
football.london understands that Edu is open to offers for the 32-year-old this January, with clubs in Italy France and Spain all having expressed an interest.
The Gunners meanwhile are understood to be in the market for Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic, with the futures of Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah also uncertain.
