Mkhitaryan set to miss Borussia Dortmund trip to Azerbaijan

Dortmund face Azerbaijani club Gabala in the Europa League on Thursday, but are likely to leave the Armenian midfielder in Germany because of an ongoing conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The region, along with some adjacent Azerbaijani territory, has been under the occupation of Armenian troops since a 1994 ceasefire ended a six-year war.

Violence has nevertheless broken out sporadically since.

"Mkhitaryan will most likely not be on board our flight to Baku," Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke told German tabloid Bild earlier this week.

However, Borussia Dortmund have not yet made a final decision on whether they will exclude the in-form midfielder from the trip, a club spokesperson told ESPN FC.

The five-time Armenian footballer of the year has visited the occupied region several times and it remains unclear whether he will be granted a visa to enter Azerbaijan.