Arsenal: Santi Cazorla entering point of no return

Santi Cazorla was forced to have surgery again on Monday after further complications and will likely miss the start of next season. The Arsenal midfielder is reaching the point of no return.

Injuries are a killer. Arsenal know this far too well. It wouldn’t be a normal year for the Gunners without some form of injury crisis to a number of their star players. There are a plethora of players whose careers have been scuppered because of unrelenting fitness concerns.

And the latest of those, Santi Cazorla, has just suffered yet another damaging blow. The second season in succession, the Spanish midfielder featured little thanks to a major injury. In both years, he did not make it til Christmas and proceeded to remain on the sidelines for the remainder of the season.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

But the first of these two horrifying years saw Cazorla return to the starting line-up in the summer. That will not happen this time around. Speaking after the FA Cup final win, Cazorla revealed that he has had to undergo yet another surgery which could keep him out for the next five months of action:

"“I haven’t been given a timeframe [to return to action]. It’s very difficult to put a date, but I don’t think it will be before five months. It’s been since October that I last played. I’ve undergone eight surgeries, the last one yesterday [Monday]. I hope that things go better. I’ve had complications since November. I got a bacterial infection in surgery, my bone got infected, the wound would not close and I had a graft done.”"

That would put his return at around late October, early November, assuming all goes well, which is a rather hefty assumption to make given recent history. For Cazorla to miss a whole year – it was last October when he last featured for the Gunners – and at the age of 32, the question of whether his future belongs in North London is a fair one to ask.

His quality and his ability are not doubted. He is still the best technician in the squad, the metronome in the centre of the park that is so valuable to the side’s fluency in possession. But if he’s never on the pitch thanks to injury after injury after injury, there comes a point where ties must be cut, however unfortunate or harsh that may be.

Next: Arsenal: 3 players immediately impacted by Wenger deal

Cazorla is a wonderfully gifted player who certainly improves the side when he plays. But he plays so infrequently, that he is now reaching the point of no return. Let’s hope he can make one last remarkable recovery.

Home/Arsenal News