Former Arsenal star ‘lined up’ for shock move to European heavyweights amid injury crisis

German champions Bayern Munich are lining up a shock move for a former Arsenal defender, according to reports from The Mirror.

Thomas Tuchel’s side have been hit with a series of injuries in recent weeks which leave them without key defenders Dayot Upamecano, Marius De Ligt and Tarek Buchmann.

This leaves summer signing Kim Min Jae as the club’s only senior central defensive option for the foreseeable future ahead of games against Mainz and Galatasaray. This injury crisis has prompted Bayern to delve into the market to sign a free agent to prevent this crisis from derailing their season.

One name that was briefly mentioned was 76-time German international Jerome Boateng but after a brief training contract the German giants opted against re-signing the 35-year-old who was released from Lyon last summer.

But it now appears the German giants have turned their attention elsewhere in a surprise move for a former Arsenal man.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos is a 90-time Greek international who was signed by Arsenal in the summer of 2018 for a fee in the region of £18m.

He was initially a first team regular for the Gunners as they finished in 5th place under Unai Emery, but he quickly dropped down the pecking order in his second season as Arsenal fell to 8th position.

Papastathopoulos was famously left out of Arsenal’s Europa League and Premier League squads during the 2020/21 season alongside Mesut Ozil and his contract was eventually cut short by mutual consent in January 2021.

The 6ft 1 defender has since gone on to lift two league titles in three seasons with Olympiacos but he has been without a club since the end of last season when his contract ended.