Santi Cazorla sidelined until January at the earliest
The Spanish midfielder has been out of action since October last year. Arsenal have not registered him in their 25-man squad submitted to the FA.
Santi Cazorla's return to first team football with Arsenal, at least in the Premier League, is on hold until January at the earliest. The Spanish midfielder's career continues to be hampered by injury problems - the latest of which, an Achilles injury means that he has been left out of the official squad list which Arsenal have submitted to the FA.
Cazorla, in his sixth season at Arsenal
Cazorla reflected on his fitness woes, saying recently, "I reached the point where I thought I'd never play football again at the top level. I had an operation, everything went great, then I suffered another injury. I don't have enough strength in the tendon nor muscular tone. I need time to build it back.I don't want to set a date for my return in case I don't meet it".
The 32-year-old has no thoughts about hanging up his boots just yet. His last outing was in the Champions League group stage game against Ludogorets on 19 October last year. Now that he is unable to play in the league until January 2018, it will be over a year without being involved in official competition.
The full Arsenal list: Chuba Akpom, Bellerín, Cech, Chambers, Coquelin, Debuchy, Elneny, Naser Elsayed, Giroud, Holding, Iliev, Kolasinac, Koscielny, Lacazette, Macey, Mertesacker, Monreal, Mustafi, Ospina, Özil, Ramsey, Alexis Sánchez, Walcott, Welbeck, Wilshere and Granit Xhaka.
