Santi Cazorla has spoken to Marca about the horrendous impact his ongoing Achilles issues have had, having been out of action since October 2016.

The Spaniard’s ankle became infected, requiring skin grafts, and earlier this year he said he’d had eight separate operations to try and solve the problem.

Now, in an interview with Marca due to be released later today in their paper, the impact has become obvious. The front page photo – which is not for the faint-hearted – shows just how much damage has been done, with skin grafted from his arm onto his ankle to fight the infection.

The front page text says, “The doctor told me that if I could come back to walk around the garden with my son, I should feel satisfied.”

It’s also revealed that he’s lost 8cm from his Achilles tendon and that he nearly lost his foot which, along with everything else, must cast real doubt on his return to first team football.

As we don’t have the full text, and at this point just the bullet-pointed gory details, we don’t yet know if there’s a happy(ish) ending to the article.

However, back in July Cazorla dismissed talk of retirement, and he has been posting period pictures and videos of his training regime as he tries to make his way back. It’s clearly been a horrible injury and all we can do is keep fingers crossed.

We’ll have more from the piece as and when it’s released.