Arsenal
stars were struck by food poisoning in China that prevented several key players
from playing their pre-season friendly with Bayern Munich on Wednesday,
manager
Arsene Wenger said in a statement.
According to
the French coach, the sickness swept the Arsenal camp, coupled with the severe
heat in China and extensive travelling to different climates wasn't "ideal
physically" for the players.
Olivier
Giroud missed Wednesday's friendly victory over Bayern Munich because of food
poisoning, then captain Per Mertesacker pulled out of the game just moments
before kick-off because he too fell ill with the same problem.
New signing
Sead Kolasinac also had to come off before the break and second-half
substitutes Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey both finished the game not feeling
well.
During the
game, the Arsenal team were poor in the first half in the 36 degrees Celsius
(97F) heat and Wenger admitted that the extreme conditions in Shanghai were
"a shock" after flying in from Australia, which is in its winter
"I was
a bit scared that tonight we could have big problems and in fact in the first
half we suffered a bit," said Wenger.
"Ramsey
finished the game, but Walcott, Kolasinac, Mertesacker, Giroud, they all had a
little food poisoning."
Wenger said
the club did not know what caused the food poisoning.
Wenger added
of the punishing preseason schedule that many top European clubs now undertake
to far-flung destinations for commercial reasons: "If you ask me is it
ideal physically to prepare? I'd say certainly not.
"Has it
got other advantages? Yes because we can meet fans all over the world so that
is very positive."
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