{"id":2103,"date":"2017-11-03T14:21:15","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T13:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/?p=2103"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:51:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T13:51:10","slug":"santi-cazorla-targets-january-return-against-chelsea-after-amputation-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/?p=2103","title":{"rendered":"Santi Cazorla targets January return against Chelsea after amputation fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Santi Cazorla hopes to return to action in January to face Chelsea in the New Year <a href=\"http:\/\/footballweeks.com\/summary-premier-league-table-england-results-fixtures-tables-news\/\">Premier League fixtures<\/a> after undergoing eight operations in the space of a year following severe right ankle injury complications.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The 32-year-old has not played since October 19, 2016 and was initially expected to return from a right ankle injury three weeks later.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">However, he underwent three surgeries in a three-month span and doctors in England were pessimistic regarding the player&#8217;s recovery.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t have a spot until January but my intention is to return by then,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marca.com\/futbol\/premier-league\/2017\/11\/03\/59fb71a3e5fdea3d318b4648.html\">Cazorla told Marca<\/a>. &#8220;I never listened to those that said that I would only be able to play football with my children, I have plenty of football left in me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The Spaniard shared a photograph of the state of his right ankle following the effects of several operations and it appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marca\/status\/926344456047071232\">Marca&#8217;s front page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LaPortada?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LaPortada<\/a> &#39;El calvario de <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/19SCazorla?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@19SCazorla<\/a>&#39; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LD0906zacw\">https:\/\/t.co\/LD0906zacw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; MARCA (@marca) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marca\/status\/926344456047071232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 3, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">A skin graft from his left arm was required to cover the wound, meaning part of a tattoo is now on his foot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;If you manage to walk with your son again in the garden, be satisfied,&#8221; Cazorla said he was told.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">His eighth and last surgery was carried out in May in Spain with Vitoria-based doctor Mikel Sanchez horrified by what he discovered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">There were fears that Cazorla would need to have his foot amputated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;He [Dr. Sanchez] saw that I had a tremendous infection, that had damaged part of the calcaneum bone, eaten the Achilles tendon, there were eight centimetres missing!&#8221; Cazorla said. &#8220;This hasn&#8217;t been a simple injury as people may have thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;The problem was that it would not heal, the wound would reopen and it would get infected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Cazorla, who has scored 29 goals in 180 appearances for Arsenal since joining the club from Malaga in 2012, has been working with Spain&#8217;s national team physio Juan Carlos Herranz in the city of Salamanca to regain his fitness.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/19SCazorla\/status\/883777938872823809<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;My family is in London as the children had to start school,&#8221; he said. &#8220;To be without them is the hardest thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Cazorla&#8217;s determination has never faltered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;No one placed their trust in me but I did and I continue to do so, even though the pain makes me wary,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">A Euro 2008 and 2012 winner with Spain, Cazorla says Arsenal and his former Spain national teammates have been very supportive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8220;Arsenal had a nice touch when they extended my contract until June 2018 when I got injured,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now I realise who is who [those who care]. Each day I get a message from [Barcelona&#8217;s Andres] Iniesta, [Manchester City&#8217;s David] Silva and [New York FC&#8217;s David] Villa.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Santi Cazorla hopes to return to action in January to face Chelsea in the New Year Premier League fixtures after undergoing eight operations in the space of a year following severe right ankle injury complications. The 32-year-old has not played since October 19, 2016 and was initially expected to return from a right ankle injury [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,35,8],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arsenal-fc","category-premier-league","category-transfers","tag-santi-cazorla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2103"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2107,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions\/2107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arsenaltalk.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}