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Wenger confirms huge blow as star ruled out for up to four months

By mac14 on December 7, 2015

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has confirmed the bad news that Santi Cazorla has undergone surgery on his knee and is facing up to four months on the sidelines.

Cazorla picked up the injury against Norwich City last weekend and although he was able to complete the full ninety minutes at Carrow Road, it became apparent after the game that he’d suffered a serious problem.

The newspapers revealed late last week that Santi had damaged knee ligaments and now we’ve had the news confirmed by the boss, who’s revealed that the 30-year-old has undergone surgery.

Renowned Spanish knee specialist Dr Ramon Cugat confirmed that Cazorla had ruptured his lateral collateral ligament and the player decided to undergo the operation straight away rather than seek a second opinion.

Wenger is confident Cazorla will play again this season, but the midfielder is now facing up to four months on the sidelines meaning he’ll be back around March.

“Santi wanted to have a chance to come back quickly so he didn’t want to last too long for 25 opinions,” Wenger is quoted as saying by the Guardian

“He decided to go straight away. The guy said: ‘Look, it’s a clear case. It’s a rupture of the external knee ligament.’ And Santi said: ‘OK, let’s do it straight away.’ It’s not the season. It is at least three months out, maybe four.”

So there we have it. Another player lost to a serious knee injury and we’ll have to navigate a crucial part of the season without both Cazorla and Coquelin – who’ve been our first choice central midfield pairing this year.

It’s clearly a huge blow but the silver lining is Aaron Ramsey can now be restored in his preferred central position. The problem is who plays next to him as Flamini isn’t the answer for me.