Cesc Fabregas explains how he scored for Arsenal with a broken leg against Barcelona in the Champions League

Arsenal icon Cesc Fabregas has experienced plenty in his football career, but few may have been as painful as a clash against Barcelona back in 2010.

The Gunners were seemingly out of the race for the Premier League title but they were firmly chasing down a top-four spot at the end of the 2009/10 campaign.

While that was ongoing in the domestic season, plenty of attention was fixed on making another run deep into the Champions League.

Arsene Wenger guided Arsenal into the semi-finals, where they took on Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona at the peak of their powers.

The Emirates Stadium played host to the first leg of the contest, where the Blaugrana took control with two goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

A fightback was on the cards though, as Theo Walcott pulled a goal back before Cesc Fabregas drew the tie level from the penalty spot.

While it was an important draw to take to Camp Nou, the damage was already seemingly done in the first leg.

Cesc Fabregas shares story of broken leg goal against Barcelona

Following the match against Barcelona, Fabregas required medical attention for his right foot, feeling some pain from his penalty kick.

The Spaniard was later told that he had broken a bone in his leg that ruled him out of action for the rest of the season.

Discussing that incident, he said on the Rest is Football podcast: “The game before we played against Birmingham and, do you remember a play called [Craig] Gardner, playing for Birmingham?

“So midfielder, he hit me big time, like really strong and I was limping, I was on crutches.

“I didn’t know if I was going to make the game against Barcelona but for me, it was such a big game, so important.

“I didn’t train the three or four days before and the day of the game, in the morning before we met with the team, I just took a couple of laps of the Emirates to see how I was feeling and said ‘Oh that’s fine’.

“I go ahead, I took some anti-inflammatories and painkillers and just played.

“It was one of those moments where I was fouled for the penalty by [Carles] Puyol, my leg got stuck between his two legs and I think that I felt a little reaction and when I went strong to hit the penalty I think something broke in there and it wasn’t pleasant.”

Cesc Fabregas penalty against Barcelona

Looking back at the penalty, you can clearly see the moment after when Fabregas realises that he has suffered an injury in his leg.

The midfielder starts limping away with the ball as Arsenal looked to grab another goal in the final few moments.

It ended his season with the Gunners, while the second leg ended in a 4-1 defeat at Camp Nou shortly after.

Fortunately for Fabregas, he recovered in time to make the Spain squad for the 2010 World Cup that summer, where he went on to win the tournament with his nation.