Wenger: Cazorla injury 'frustrating', unlikely to play for Arsenal again this season
The Spaniard went down with a calf injury in October, following a spell-binding start to the season. He now has to add another six weeks to his return, prompting Wenger to say that it left him a “short” period in which to play.
“It’s a special problem on his calf,” Wenger said today (via Squawka), “At the moment, the only thing I can say because I have not seen him in training, not even in fitness work, is that he’ll be short.
“We are now at the beginning of March, so it is very difficult to predict. When you think that when a player starts to train after such a long time out, you have at least six weeks to be competitive for a place in the team.
“If you add six weeks today, we are already at mid-April so that means it will be short for him now.
The good news is that Cazorla, who had scored twice and assisted as many in his strong start to the Premier League season, has seen his contract be extended until the summer of 2018, when he will be 33.
Wenger himself lent credibility to the notion that Cazorla was playing very well.
“It is very frustrating for us because at the start of the season, he was maybe the star of the team.
"Overall it is a big loss for us but I am especially sad for him, for a guy who loves football, when football is so natural, he suffers a lot not to be on the pitch.”
Since the Spaniard’s injury, the Gunners have struggled to find alternatives in the middle of the park, where the likes of Francis Coquelin, Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka have struggled to pass with any variety.
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