Arsenal right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu has backtracked on his claim that he needs time away from football after Japan's heartbreaking elimination from the World Cup and will instead immediately join his Gunners team-mates out in Dubai.
Those Arsenal stars who did not represent their nation out in Qatar have travelled to the Middle East for some warm weather training before the Premier League resumes on Boxing Day when West Ham visit the Emirates. Tomiyasu was distraught following Japan's penalty shootout defeat by Croatia at the round of 16 stage.
The defender's only start in Qatar came in their knockout clash with the Croatians, though Tomiyasu was not one of the four Japanese stars to take a penalty during the 3-1 shootout defeat.
Pressed for comment on when he would reunite with his Arsenal collagues, Tomiyasu fought-back tears as he admitted: "I don’t know. Hopefully I can get a bit of rest. I need time to forget about football. I need a bit of time."
He was distraught after the defeat by Croatia, adding: "Of course we are so disappointed with the result. My performance was a disaster today so I am sorry for the team.
“I just need to be much better to help the team. It was not enough and also for the team we did not deserve to win. We were so close to achieving our aim. They were better than us. I can’t be proud. I am not satisfied about what happened."
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Despite this, Japanese newspaper Sports Nippon, has reported that the right-back boarded a plane from Doha and jetted off directly to Dubai to link up with his fellow Gunners.
Mikel Arteta's men have already played their first Dubai Super Cup fixture, running out 3-0 winners against a Lyon side that looked second-best for the entire 90 minutes. Tomiyasu was not named in the squad, with the first game coming far too soon for the 24-year-old.
Fellow Arsenal duo Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka were also eliminated with Ghana and Switzerland respectively and both are expected to make the same trip to Dubai.
Xhaka was particularly keen to put his World Cup disappointment behind him, claiming: "Of course, emotionally it is not easy. But this is part of our business, part of football.
"You have to recover well. The Premier League is waiting and, of course, I wanted to be here longer than this. But we lost the game today and I am happy to go back now with the team.
"I have something to achieve there, and I know the team is in Dubai at the moment doing the pre-season. I’m flying back to Dubai, going back to the team, and going back to the training and trying to forget the tournament now."
