Arsenal star Christos Tzolis has been sent home after picking up an injury during the international break
Greece boss Ivan Jovanovic has given an update on Christos Tzolis.
Greece boss Ivan Jovanovic has given an update on Christos Tzolis(Image: (Photo by Milos Bicanski - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images))
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Arsenal star Christos Tzolis will return to north London after picking up an injury on international duty and a disagreement with Greece head coach Ivan Jovanovic.
The Gunners star was taken off just 18 minutes into Greece's Nations League clash with the Netherlands, replaced by Giorgos Masouras.
Tzolis reportedly told his manager he could play on, but Jovanovic made the call to replace the forward who appeared to pick up a hamstring injury.
"How am I supposed to handle it?" Jovanovic told Sport24 when asked about Tzolis' injury. "I’m his coach, I tell him to come off and he tells me: ‘I’m not coming off.’ What am I supposed to do?
"How can I handle it? So, this is something that can characterise the Greek and all these kids who come to play for the national team regardless of age.
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"I told him to come off because I suspected that he wouldn’t do that unless he had felt something.
"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.
"We don't know how much damage was done 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 in the corner. And then he went out. These are our players."
Christos Tzolis was forced off for Greece in a huge injury concern for Arsenal
Christos Tzolis was forced off for Greece in a huge injury concern for Arsenal
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When asked about whose decision the substitution was, Jovanovic said: "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. So when a doctor considers that this thing, as he and Christos understand it, is something that is not for the player to continue playing.
"Certainly first as a coach I have to take the decision to replace the player, because it was a muscular issue. It wasn't a problem, like an ankle or something else.
"But when it's muscular issues, that, along with the doctors, with the immediate information I have, was the reason I asked for it to come out immediately."