Tzolis leaves Greece camp: thigh muscle injury, misses the match against Germany

Christos Tzolis, 24, an Arsenal winger signed in July from Club Brugge for around £34 million, was injured in the 18th minute of Thursday’s 2-2 draw with the Netherlands at the “Toumba” in Thessaloniki, in the Nations League — as The Sun reports.

It is a suspected thigh muscle injury; according to Greek reports confirmed by SunSport, it is a small muscle tear and an absence of two to three weeks is expected.

Tzolis wanted to continue playing, but coach Ivan Jovanović took no risk and replaced him with Giorgos Masouras — who assisted Fotis Ioannidis’s goal and scored the second, before the Netherlands equalised through Reijnders in the 89th minute.

As football.london writes, Tzolis has withdrawn from the national team camp and returns to London on Saturday, where Arsenal’s physiotherapists will determine the full extent of the injury; he misses Sunday’s decisive match against Germany at the “Toumba”.

Meanwhile, PAOK officially announced that Dimitris Pelkas has been called up to the national team as a replacement for the duel with Germany.

If the absence lasts three weeks, Tzolis risks missing Arsenal’s matches against Leeds (October 10), Lille (October 13), Nottingham Forest (October 18), Bayern Munich (October 21) and Everton (October 24) — according to The Sun.

The irony: against the Netherlands he scored in the 13th minute, but the goal was disallowed because Vangelis Pavlidis was judged to be in an offside position; in recent weeks he had been in excellent form with the national team — a goal against Serbia in the 2-1 win in Belgrade and an assist for Kourbelis in the historic 1-0 win over Germany in Augsburg. A human detail for the Albanian reader: Tzolis’s parents are from Dhrovjan in Vlorë, from the Greek minority in Albania.