Santi Cazorla opens up on horrible infection that ended Arsenal career

Former Arsenal midfielder, now at Villarreal Santi Cazorla [Courtesy]

Santi Cazorla has revealed he lost a huge chunk of tendon to the bacteria-eating infection that ended his Arsenal career.

The midfielder spent 636 days on the sidelines after picking up the bug in hospital while going under the knife.

His last game for the Gunners was against Ludogorets in October 2016 and Cazorla finally left north London this summer to join Villarreal.

And the Spaniard has revealed just the extent of his injury.

"I picked it up in the operating theatre and then there was the fact that the wound was open," he told the Guardian.

"I’d work on the bike and a couple of stitches would come out. Because it was an open wound, bacteria can enter, so another bug gets in. At night, a yellow liquid would come out.

The Spaniard joined Villarreal this summer having not played for the Gunners for more than 600 days [Courtesy]

"Every time they sewed me up, it split again; more liquid. They did a skin graft but they didn’t see what was inside – the bacteria eating away, eating away. They never found out which bacteria it was.

“They didn’t know how much of the tendon the infection had eaten.

“[The surgeon] said: ‘I’m going to have to open you up until I find the tendon.’ They told me they’d have to open, open, open, open and when they did, they saw I had lost 10cm.

"I’d been lucky, they said, it could have been more. When he had to rebuild the tendon, he realised how bad a condition the bone was in. He could put his finger in it. It was like Plasticine. That’s even more dangerous."

Cazorla, 33, twice won the FA Cup during his six years at Arsenal and has played three times since re-joining Villarreal.