Santi Cazorla reveals story behind injury woes

The 33-year-old Spaniard, who garnered 25 goals and 35 assists in 129 Premier League appearances for Arsenal, spoke to 'Sportsmail' at the Villarreal training ground in Spain, and says that even his family had concerns over whether he would ever play again.

"[My kid] used to say to me, “Are you not going to play any more?” I would say, “Yes of course I’m going to play again”. And he would say: “But with that foot? Your foot looks a bit strange eh!”," says Cazorla, who is on a 1 year contract with the Spanish side.

"Now he can see me playing again. It means it’s all been worthwhile."

Cazorla's injury nightmare started when he cracked a bone in his ankle playing in a friendly for Spain in 2013. However, Arsenal carried out tests and told him there was nothing to worry about.

"I resisted a little bit,’ he says. ‘I just thought that it was an ankle knock, nothing more, put a bandage on it and stopped for a few days.

Trabajando duro para estar al 100% bien pronto! #workingHard #closerEveryday pic.twitter.com/dbtVnN4uf1

— Santi Cazorla (@19SCazorla) May 24, 2018

"But time passed and instead of getting better it got worse. The half-time break would kill me because the ankle would get cold. I would be crippled for the first 15 minutes of the second half.

"It went on like this with lots of pain until the game against Ludogorets in October 2016 when I was in tears. I have a high pain threshold but it had become too much. I had to stop."

Although Cazorla didn't yet know it, he had contracted an infection in his tendon that was eating away at his ankle bone.

In December 2016, a Swedish doctor operated on him and when Cazorla then went to Spain to work with physio Juan Carlos Herranz, he believed that he was only a few months away from getting back to regular football.

Unfortunately, he didn't heal, and needed more surgery in London where he was told that rather than worrying about playing football, it was more important that he concentrated being able to lead a normal life with his family.

"I decided to come to Spain where they knew how difficult my case was but where they said, “Santi, you have had a really screwed-up injury but we are going to fight so that you can play again”. In London they had almost decided that was it for me," said Cazorla.

In order to complete the surgery, Cazorla had a piece of skin on his arm grafted onto his ankle - removing part of a tattoo of his daughter India's name.

"There are bits of me in places where there shouldn’t be. I’m like a jigsaw puzzle!" laughs Cazorla.

Having started every one of Villarreal's opening 3 La Liga games, Cazorla seems to be well on the way to a full recovery.