Santi Cazorla hopes to return to action in January after undergoing eight operations over the span of one year due to severe right ankle injury complications.

"I don't have a spot until January but my intention is to return by then," Cazorla told Marca. "I never listened to those that said that I would only be able to play football with my children, I have plenty of football left in me."

A skin graft from his left arm was required to cover the wound, meaning part of a tattoo is now on his foot.

Cazorla was told he would be lucky to even walk normally again and there were fears he would need to have his foot amputated.

"He [Dr. Sanchez] saw that I had a tremendous infection, that had damaged part of the calcaneum bone, eaten the Achilles tendon, there were eight centimetres missing!" Cazorla said. "This hasn't been a simple injury as people may have thought.

"The problem was that it would not heal, the wound would reopen and it would get infected."