Mkhitaryan hurts to miss Europa League final

Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan has admitted he is “hurt” after he was left out of the squad to travel for the Europa League final against Chelsea.

“I must admit, it hurts me a lot to miss it,” Mkhitaryan tweeted.

“we had to take the tough decision for me not to travel with the squad to the UEL Final against Chelsea,” he added.

The Armenian midfielder will miss the final in Baku amid fears for his safety. There is a tense political dispute between his country Armenia and final hosts Azerbaijan.

Arsenal decided to leave out Mkhitaryan for the final despite Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the UK, Tahir Taghizadeh, insisting Mkhitaryan would be free from any threat of violence.

“We are very disappointed to announce that Henrikh Mkhitaryan will not be travelling with the squad for our UEFA Europa League final against Chelsea,” an Arsenal said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We have thoroughly explored all the options for Micki to be part of the squad but after discussing this with Micki and his family we have collectively agreed he will not be in our travelling party.”

“We have written to UEFA expressing our deep concerns about this situation,” the Arsenal statement added.

“We’re also very sad that a player will miss out on a major European final in circumstances such as this, as it is something that comes along very rarely in a footballer’s career.”