Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mario Lemina have broken their silence after being sent home early from the African Cup of Nations by Gabon.
Both players had been called up by Gabon for Afcon but ended up testing positive for COVID-19 in the build up to the tournament.
In the aftermath of that the Gabon Federation claimed that Aubameyang and Lemina were both suffering with a minor heart problem.
The Gabonese Football Federation confirmed on Monday January 17, that a decision had been taken to send both players back to their respective clubs.
“Since yesterday, the decision was taken to send them home to their club, we can’t judge it here , we can’t assess the pathology of Covid here.
“It’s important that Mario returns to Nice and Pierre returns to Arsenal,It’s a decision that we’ve taken among ourselves,” Gabon coach Pierre Neveu stated.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang took to his Instagram story, sharing a comment from his Gabon national teammate Mario Lemina dispelling rumours about the pair's early departure from AFCON.
"I don't want to feed the lies which seek to harm. I have nothing to do with it.
"I am in pain for my national team who are surrounded by liars in search of a buzz. Good luck to you for the rest of the competition and for national team squads in the future. Far from my eyes but close to my heart," Lemina’s statement read.
Aubameyang also took his expression further to Twitter as he seeked to dispel rumours around his early departure.
"We have problems that are already complicated to solve, then on top of that there are rumours.
"In short, we have health to take care of first and foremost, I won't go back on these false rumours and I sincerely hope that our team will go as far as possible," Aubameyang post read.
It is unclear if Aubameyang will now be involved for Arsenal's upcoming fixtures against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup and Burnley in the Premier League this week.
Manager Mikel Arteta has refused to rule out a return for the 32-year-old who has not featured for the Gunners since being stripped of the club captaincy back in December 2021, amid repeated disciplinary breaches.