Santi Cazorla: Former Arsenal star ready for fairytale finish with Real Oviedo

To speak to Cazorla is an uplifting experience. He beams, clearly loving the extra years he has fought hard to gain.

To get here has been a journey. After an innocuous kick while playing for Spain against Chile in 2013, he endured ankle issues but played on for three years.

By then the pain was too much and treatment was needed, but Cazorla did not expect the multiple operations, one leading to infection which destroyed almost 11 centimetres of his Achilles and nearly cost him his leg.

His bone had gone soft. One operation was a reconstruction of his Achilles, surgeons grafting skin from his left arm – featuring a tattoo of his daughter’s name – to his right ankle.

Doctors explained he should be content with walking again, let alone playing. Yet, when asked what the conversation was like, Cazorla – who describes his ankle as a “jigsaw puzzle” – recalls his defiance.

“I never believed this kind of thing,” he says. “The injury was really hard. I was never honest with the injury, I was thinking I had a small one.”

Cazorla kept putting surgery off, until he could do no longer.

“It was the most difficult moment in my career, not only in football but my life,” he adds. “I was without my family, my wife and kids but you have to fight – if you have a dream, you have to fight every day.

“My wife, kids, my mum, brother… I had to fight for them. It was a very difficult time for me as a person.

“One day you are at the Emirates to play and a week later you are alone in hospital. It’s difficult to control these kind of emotions.”

Arsenal, though, did not share Cazorla’s confidence of making a comeback.

They had renewed his contract once but he was unable to convince the Gunners to give him a new deal in 2018, eventually returning to Villarreal for three years where he added another 86 appearances to his previous 233.

“I remember when I started to feel better after a year and a half, I came back and asked, ‘please give me the chance to do pre-season and after I would like to sign one year more,'” he says, having made 180 appearances, scoring 29 goals, in six years at Arsenal.

“They told me they felt I wouldn’t come back to the top level. It’s normal when you are out for two years.

“I was very honest with them – give me the chance because I’m ready again. They said no and I have to understand that position.”

He still speaks about the Gunners with affection, though, and remains close with Mikel Arteta, his captain at Emirates Stadium. He is also open to a return once he retires.

What comes next will be “something in football” but Cazorla will assess his options.

“If Arsenal call me my door is open to listen to them because I love this club. It was the best decision of my career to go to Arsenal,” he adds.