Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz has jumped to the defence of Arsenal ace Mesut Ozil.

Havertz says German football shouldn't abandon Ozil after he announced his international retirement earlier this summer.

He told Spox: "I want to evaluate him from a sporting point of view. To question his qualities as a football player is incomprehensible.

"He has always been a player I love to watch and whose career I always followed.

"Mesut Özil is a very good player who has done a lot for the national team and his club team."