Unai Emery denies claims Mesut Ozil’s injury was caused by video games as Arsenal get set to face Qarabag

HOURS upon hours spent playing video games is not behind Mesut Ozil's recent back problems, insists Unai Emery.

Arsenal's playmaker has been sidelined for more than a month with a back problem - but he will return on Thursday night.

Emery's side host Azerbaijan's Qarabag at the Emirates in a dead rubber Europa League tie, and German midfielder Ozil will feature.

Rumours suggested the 30-year-old's injury was down to a gaming habit, with 'Fortnite' known to be his favourite.

Ozil has posted photos of himself playing the popular video game to his 18.6million Instagram followers.

And, according to the website 'Wasted on Fortnite,' he has played 5,221 matches which equates to... a lot.

The average match takes around 20 minutes to finish. Working on that basis, Ozil has played 104,420 minutes, which is roughly 72 days.

That averages out at five hours every single day through a year.

Asked whether the rumours about Ozil's injury were true, Emery smiled and said: "I don't know.

"Tomorrow he is in the group, the 18 players for this match. We are going to decide if he will play tomorrow from the beginning or during the 90 minutes.

"We are going to use tomorrow some different players coming from the Under-23s and in our planning is to start playing with Laurent Koscielny [recovering from a long-term injury].

"Our first aim in this competition we have done."

'Fortnite' has been a popular game among the England and Tottenham players.

Harry Kane and Dele Alli are known to be regular gamers with the latter performing celebrations that come from 'Fortnite'.