Santi Cazorla: I nearly had to have my foot amputated

Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla has let slip that he nearly had to have his right foot amputated after an infection in his ankle.

Following eight operations, which saw the Spaniard lose eight centimetres from his tendon, Cazorla contracted gangrene in the wound. He was told by doctors that he might never walk again.

Pictures published by the Spanish newspaper Marca show the extent of the injuries and the skin graft which was taken from Cazorla’s arm tattoo.

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“If you manage to walk with your son again in the garden, be satisfied, they told me,” Cazorla said of the doctors’ verdict.

“He [the doctor] saw that I had a tremendous infection, that I had damaged part of the calcaneus bone and it had eaten the Achilles tendon. There was 8 centimetres of it missing!”

Now on the road to recovery after more than a year out, Cazorla has been working on his fitness in Spain, with the aim of returning to first-team football in the new year.

In an interview with the Daily Express last month, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said his playmaker will need reserve team games to build his fitness.

“The first signs are positive, but still he has not played for one and a half years,” said Wenger. “He is not in full training yet, he needs a few games with the reserve team. So I think if all goes well, it will be after Christmas.”