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Arsene Wenger Confirms Santi Cazorla out for Arsenal's Season with Ankle Injury
March 30, 2017
Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla will not recover from his ankle injury before the end of the season, manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed.
The Frenchman announced the news in his press conference on Thursday, as reported by the London Evening Standard's James Olley on Twitter:
Cazorla's bad luck with injuries is a further blow to Arsenal's rapidly unravelling season, with the 32-year-old central midfielder looking an increasingly unreliable option for the club.
Cazorla has not featured since the 6-0 victory over Ludogorets Razgrad in the Champions League on Oct. 19 and has only played in eight Premier League matches this season.
It is the second successive year in which the Spaniard has been troubled by injuries, after problems with his knee and Achilles restricted him to 15 league games in 2015-16.
Arsenal, on a run of six defeats from their last nine matches in all competitions, are desperately missing their star player. In December, Simon Rice of Metro noted the Gunners had won 65.5 per cent of Premier League matches in which Cazorla featured since the beginning of the 2013-14 season and just 38.9 per cent in matches in which he did not.
At 32, time is clearly running out for Cazorla to prove he is still a valuable asset to Arsenal. His quality cannot be doubted, but the fact that his ankle injury is keeping him out for at least seven months does not bode well for his long-term future at the top.