Coronavirus: Mustafi future debate on hold

Shkodran Mustafi is not thinking about his Arsenal future and has no problem with the issue moving down the club's priority list amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Germany international has just over a year remaining on his Gunners contract and has been back in favour since Mikel Arteta took over from Unai Emery. At an uncertain time, Mustafi’s focus is on returning to the pitch before "questions" on his career are answered.

"We are in a situation where everyone is worried about the current situation and not so much about their personal future," Mustafi, 27, said to Sky Germany. "First of all, I would like to play football again. That's how we all feel, we want to get back onto the pitch. There are so many question marks at the moment.

"Euro 2020 has been postponed. There are so many discussions whether we can even finish the season or not. So it is difficult to think about my personal future. None of us know what will happen next and when we can play again. So once we have overcome this difficult time and are back on the pitch, I can think about questions like that.

"At the moment I don't think about it. Also, the club has more important stuff to deal with right now than my future." We are in a world here where everything is social media, everything is a WhatsApp text. But how important is touching each other, feeling each other and hugging each other? I miss that a lot with a lot of people that I love."

 

March 27, 2020

Mustafi had previously spoken positively about Arteta and praised the Arsenal boss' charisma as he began to get more regular appearances alongside David Luiz at the back.

"I can imagine continuing to play for him," he said of Arteta, who has recently recovered from COVID-19.  But we still don't know about the future and there are still many question marks."