The Arsenal playmaker has teamed up with his cross-city rivals to provide aid to the African country
Arsenal's Mesut Ozil has teamed up with a group of Chelsea stars led by Antonio Rudiger to send 60,000 face masks to Sierra Leone to help in the ongoing fight against coronavirus across the world.
Rudiger's parents Matthias and Lily met in the German capital of Berlin after fleeing Sierra Leone in 1991 due to the civil war but the family retain a connection to their country.
The defender's Chelsea team-mates N'Golo Kante, Olivier Giroud and Callum Hudson-Odoi have all donated to the local organisations Madam Wokie and LunchBox Gift with fears that an outbreak in the impoverished state could lead to a higher death rate than in many European countries.
Each player has offered $5,000, with the donations being matched by the European Union dollar for dollar, as the players aim to raise awareness for a cause that will deliver the masks to low-income market traders in Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown.
The donations come amid the latest World Bank report that economic growth in the country will be stopped even in the best-case scenario with 39 per cent of the population living below the international poverty line of US$1.9/day.
Current coronavirus figures from the west African state show that there are 61 confirmed cases with six having recovered but there are likely many more instances which haven't been reported.
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