Cazorla - I am dying to play again

Santi Cazorla cannot wait to return to first-team action for Arsenal as he “needs the daily routine of football”.

The Spain international has been out of action since late November after sustaining a knee injury in the 1-1 draw against Norwich City.

Cazorla then picked up an Achilles problem, but he hopes to be playing again soon after returning to full training last week.

“I'm happy to be nearing a return to the team,” he told Arsenal Player. “Obviously it's been difficult for me to be out for a long period of time.

“I still have a little way to go until I'm back to my best and can play with the team. I'm training with them now so I can return as soon as possible.

“I hate not playing. I need the daily routine of football so when I can't do that I don't enjoy it.

“I also had another problem on top of my knee injury, which was the original issue. During the recovery phase I started feeling some pain in my Achilles and that was something nobody was expecting.

“We'd planned for me to come back after four months and my goal was to play in the second leg against Barcelona.

“Everything was going well and my recovery was even ahead of schedule, but sadly it all went wrong on my second day running outside with the fitness coach. I started to feel a really sharp pain in my Achilles and that's why it's been five months.

“It's been tough because it was an unexpected blow and that always makes it harder to take. It was something even worse I had to take in but these things happen in football and I hope I can recover as quickly as possible because I'm dying to play again.”