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“I don’t know” – Wenger admits he doesn’t know if key man will play for Arsenal again

By on April 19, 2018

santi cazorla

Arsene Wenger has admitted he has no idea whether Santi Cazorla will play for Arsenal again as he continues to work his way back from a career-threatening Achilles injury.

Cazorla has not featured for Arsenal since aggravating his Achilles during a 6-0 Champions League victory over Ludogorets way back in October 2016.

Since then, the midfielder has endured a nightmare that’s seen him undergo nine separate operations and have a skin graft from his arm to help heal a wound in his ankle that became infected.

At one stage there were fears Santi may even lose his foot but the 33-year-old is finally on the road to recovery and is in Spain continuing his rehabilitation programme.

There is no chance Cazorla will play again this season and with his contract set to expire in June obviously there are concerns the midfielder has played his last game for the club.

Wenger says Santi is progressing well and will return to London Colney before the end of the season to be assessed by the medical team before a final decision will be made over any new contract.

However, after spending so long on the sidelines with a career-threatening injury, understandably Wenger is skeptical over whether Cazorla will ever be able to play Premier League football again.

The boss is quoted as saying by Football.London:

“I haven’t seen him since the League Cup final. He has gone back [to Spain] to do his rehab,”

“We leave him to that but the last news I’ve heard is he is doing very well. He will come back before the end of the season and we will make a check and see where he stands.

“Can he play again in the Premier League? I don’t know, we will have to see how he responds to his injury.”

“Yes, of course [a new contract will be discussed]. We missed him a lot in our game. He is an exceptional football player. It’s very sad what’s happened to him and very sad for Arsenal as well what happened to him.”

There is no doubt Cazorla has been a HUGE miss over the past 18 months and it’s only when he’s gone do you realise just how important he was to our team.

Sadly, I just can’t see any way he’ll be able to fully recover from this injury. Not at his age. He turns 34 later this year and he’ll have missed over 20 months of football by the time next season begins.

There is nothing more I’d love than to see Santi back bossing games in an Arsenal shift but unfortunately I think it’s just a pipe dream and we’d be mad to even contemplate giving him a new contract.