Santi Cazorla: Former Arsenal star ready for fairytale finish with Real Oviedo

As Santi Cazorla prepares for the final season of his career in the colours of boyhood club Real Oviedo, the words of his son Enzo still resonate with the 40-year-old.

While the former Arsenal midfielder spent two years on the sidelines with ankle issues which almost claimed his leg, all Enzo wanted was to see his dad play again.

During his 636 days out, 11 operations and gangrene which ate into his Achilles, Cazorla was ready to quit - only for Enzo, now 15, wife Ursula and daughter India, 12, to keep him going.

"In some moments I called my family and said 'I will stop. After a year, I want to be with you,'" he tells BBC Sport. "'I'm alone here, I don't have family, nothing, things are not going well'.

"My son would say 'no daddy, please try again - tomorrow will be better and you will start to feel better. I want to see you again, I love to see you playing for Arsenal and other clubs so please come back and play football again.'

"Finally, I did it. But in that moment it was difficult to say 'yes, I will be back'. These words, they are my support and my power for every day."

They have allowed him to end a career on his terms. One which has gone full circle, having helped Oviedo - the team he left in 2003 without playing a first-team game - return to La Liga for the first time in 24 years after winning the Segunda Division play-offs last season.

It will be a fairytale finish for the lifelong Carbayones fan, having signed his final deal, a one-year contract, three weeks ago.

"This will be my last season, I have to listen to my body and it's already asking me," added Cazorla.

"When I was a kid I always dreamed to play in the club and I'm here now - lucky and able to play with my club in the top division.

"I love to play football, but as with everything you have to know when it is the end. I have a lot of problems, pains every day."

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