Santi Cazorla has officially confirmed that he has suffered another injury setback and isn’t sure when he will return, as per Mirror.
The Spanish maestro aggravated an Achilles problem during the Champions League game against Ludogorets back in October.
The 32-year-old underwent a surgery back in December after inflammation around the ankle refused to subside and he’s now revealed that he was then forced to have a skin graft done at the start of January after the wound refused to heal properly.
Wenger was hoping that the Spaniard will be fit for the final weeks of the season, however, it seems the plan will now be to focus on getting him ready for the start of next season.
The midfielder was forced to undergo another operation on Thursday and the Spanish international is hoping to get back in action as soon as possible. Speaking to Spanish radio station Onda Cero, he said:
“Everything was going well until I started to do some exercises on the bicycle and the stitches gave in,”
“I had to have a minor operation to close the scar on Thursday afternoon.
“I had a graft done a month-and-a-half ago because the skin on my ankle was practically dead and that was the reason why the wound would not close when I first had my operation in Sweden.
“We hope this is the last one and I can return as soon as possible.”
The North London club recently picked up an option on his current which will keep him at the Emirates club for one more season at least. Speaking about the contract situation, he said:
“I still have one year left on my contract and my only desire is to return to playing and to compete at the highest level.”
Cazorla’s ankle has proven more troublesome than the Emirates club could have imagined, and the 32-year-old has now undergone several procedures to fix the problem. That will make him out of competitive action for a period of 10 months by the time the next season kicks in.
Even though the Spanish midfield engine is now 32, he is still an instrumental figure in the Arsenal first team. His vision, his creativity, his distribution are key components to the passing-orientated midfield of Wenger’s system.
Let’s just hope we’ve finally gotten rid of his persistent injury problem and he’s able to enjoy an injury-free campaign next year as we’re a totally different team with our Spanish maestro pulling the strings in the midfield.
