It's been over 18 months since Santi Cazorla last played for Arsenal and any hopes of him ever returning for the Gunners are fading fast.

Now 33 years old, the Spaniard is undoubtedly past his best and there were once fears he wouldn't be able to walk again, let alone play football.

Cazorla was told by doctors that due to an infection in his Achilles there was a chance he would have to have his foot amputated.

Luckily that didn't end up being the case, though Cazorla did lose eight centimetres of his Achilles tendon and has undergone eight rounds of surgery.

"'If you manage to walk with your son again in the garden, be satisfied,' they (the doctors) told me," Cazorla explained to Marca in November, per Sky Sports.

"At that time I was still playing, they told me it was OK, the problem was that it did not heal and the wounds would reopen, become infected. In pictures, I can see the tendon.

"He (the latest doctor) saw that I had a tremendous infection, that I had damaged part of the calcaneus bone and the infection ate the Achilles tendon. I had eight centimetres missing."

CAZORLA'S NIGHTMARE

Cazorla had been planning to return to Arsenal in January, but it's now April and the former Spain international still hasn't fully recovered.

It's no surprise that Cazorla isn't back yet after Arsene Wenger described his Achilles problem as "the worst injury I have seen".

Safe to say it isn't looking good for the Arsenal man and now a sad update has been provided by Spanish publication El Confidencial.

They claim Cazorla is desperate to return, but Arsenal are now "skeptical" about that ever happening and don't know whether to offer him a new contract.

Cazorla's current deal expires this summer, so if Wenger decides against a renewal the Spanish midfielder will become a free agent.

You just have to hope there's a happy ending to this heartbreaking story for Cazorla, but it seems even his club are losing faith.