Santi Cazorla shares inspirational post about bravery on his 33rd birthday as Arsenal star continues to battle back from NINE operations and absence of more than a year

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Santi Cazorla has endured more than his fair share of anguish and physical turmoil over the past 14 months. 

But the Arsenal midfielder continues to battle back from a horrific ankle injury which then spread to his achilles and on his 33rd birthday shared an inspirational quote on Instagram. 

The message was about bravery and set alongside a picture of a lion for his 1.1million followers to read.

Santi Cazorla posted a quote about bravery on his Instagram on his 33rd birthday

The Arsenal midfielder has revealed what his achilles area looks like after nine surgeries

Translated from the Spanish it reads: 'Brave is he who fights without going down. The arms before life supports a thousand falls, and despite everything gets up again.

'Life surprises you with it's ups and downs and the brave will be prepared to know how to face each obstacle because that's what it's about,' the message concluded.

Cazorla has not played since October 2016 and almost had his right foot amputated. 

He had contracted gangrene and lost eight centimetres from his achilles as skin from his tattooed arm was grafted on.

Santi Cazorla has had a piece of tattooed skin from his left arm grafted onto his right foot

Cazorla previously revealed the shocking extent of his injury nightmare to Marca: 'If you get to walk again with your son in the garden, be satisfied, they told me,'

'He [Dr Mikel Sanchez] saw that I had a tremendous infection, that I had damaged part of the calcaneus bone and it had eaten the achilles tendon. There was eight centimetres of it missing!'

Arsene Wenger described the injury as the worst he had ever seen. No doubt the Arsenal manager and the football community will welcome the diminutive playmaker back with open arms when he finally returns to action, expected to be some time in the new year. 

The Spaniard posted this picture of a message alongside a Lion talking about bravery