Patrice Neveu, Gabon’s manager, has announced that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will return to Arsenal for more testing on the heart problem that has kept him out of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Aubameyang is in Cameroon with the rest of Gabon’s side but has not played since a check-up after his recovery from Covid-19 found he has ‘heart concerns’.
The Athletic reported on Monday that Gabon was contemplating returning Aubameyang to Arsenal for more medical examinations, and Neveu has now confirmed to Goal that both the striker and midfielder Mario Lemina will be sent home.
“Since yesterday, the decision was taken to send them home to their club,” Neveu said.
“We can’t judge it here [in Cameroon], we can’t assess the pathology of Covid here.”
He added: “It’s important that Mario returns to Nice and Pierre returns to Arsenal,” he added.
“It’s a decision that we’ve taken among ourselves.”
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Aubameyang tested positive for the virus shortly after arriving in Cameroon, but after missing Gabon’s first game, he recorded a negative test and resumed team training on Thursday. He had been slated to participate in Friday’s 1-1 draw with Ghana but was ruled out after a new health check-up.
Additional tests were conducted on Sunday with the expectation that this was a one-off incident, but the same heart issue was identified once again, and Aubameyang was sent to London.
