Cazorla Reels Over Injury Return

By Max Wise

Santi Cazorla says he is once again enjoying his game after injury almost ruined his career as a footballer.

One of the most technically gifted midfielders of his generation, Cazorla endured a nightmarish 2-year spell on the sidelines as a series of achilles surgeries threatened to have his foot amputated.

The former Spanish international revealed last year that doctors told him he was lucky to walk again, as his footballing career hanged in the balance.

Cazorla spent six seasons in North London with Arsenal between 2012 and 2018, but failed to make a single appearance for the Gunners in his last 21 months at the club as a result of his achilles injury.

Cazorla joined Villareal for a third spell at the beginning of this season and has gone on to make 35 appearances in all competitions, scoring six goals.

In an interview with Omnisport, the 34-year-old revealed he is almost back to his best and is enjoying his football again.

"I worked really hard to recover my best form," he told Omnisport. "Recovering my best form has always been my only target, otherwise I would have retired."

"You never know how you feel until you're back in really competitive games, and game by game I've been gaining my best form. I've been playing more and more minutes until I forgot about my injury and my performances on the pitch improved."

"Nowadays I'm really close to my very best. I still have a margin for improvement, but I never thought I would have got back to this level one year ago."

"Now I value everything much more. I enjoy each training session and every time I board the coach to reach the stadium, I remember the bad moments I lived through and what a difficult journey it was to go back to playing football."

Cazorla, who was part of Spain’s European championship winning squads of 2008 and 2012, has helped Villareal into the quarterfinals of the Europa League, where they will face Valencia, but the Yellow Submarines find themselves in a relegation battle in La Liga, sitting a place and four points off the final relegation spot.