Santi Cazorla’s return from injury in doubt

For the past two seasons, Santi Cazorla has been Arsenal’s go to man in the midfield, playing a pivotal role in driving the attack from deep. While results have varied, he was still Arsene Wenger’s first choice before he suffered an Achilles injury in October that required surgery in December.

That alone, put him out for months. But now, Wenger revealed that the Spanish midfielder has undergone a second operation that might leave him off the pitch until next season.

“He had a little procedure,” he said, “and I have a meeting with the medical people today to see what it was.”

“Certainly he will not be available in the next six weeks, that is for sure.

“I hope he will be back this season but you have to count six weeks preparation and right now he’s not at that level.”

Six weeks is a long time in football but to not even be able to assess Cazorla until then is a worrying sign. With luck, Santi will find health comes quicker now and can return to light training in the next “3 or 4 weeks”. Until then, Arsenal find themselves well short of deep seated midfielders with Francis Coquelin still out with injury and Mohamed Elneny at the AFC.

Time to bubblewrap Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey and hope reforcements are back and ready to go for the final stretch.