PERSPECTIVE has become an increasingly rare commodity in the hysterical world of the Premier League where players are revered as a deity and then vilified for not acting like one.

So when a serious knee injury forced Mikel Arteta step out of the whirlwind, it provided a sobering opportunity to re-evaluate life away from the game.

Holed up in a bed in Barcelona’s Hospital Quiron last year following yet another setback in his return to fitness, few would have denied the Everton midfielder lamenting his fortune.

Far from it. As a new father to his son Gabriel, Arteta witnessed with extra resonance the plight of the children around him as he continued his rehabilitation.

And for the Spaniard, it helped put his injury into context.

“I saw a lot of things with the kids which were unbelievable,” says Arteta. “I’d just had a baby and when you see youngsters who are ill it is even worse.

“I knew at the end of all I was going through that I’d be fine, but a lot of them in there wouldn’t be.

“It makes you realise football is very important, but you have to realise it’s just a part of your life, not all of it. It puts everything in perspective.”

Nevertheless, the fates have largely conspired against Arteta ever since the fateful moment he fell awkwardly following an innocuous challenge with Newcastle United’s Peter Lovenkrands at St James Park a year ago this weekend.

Arteta went under the knife having ruptured a cruciate ligament, with his attempts at comeback first hampered by an operation to repair a cartilage problem in September and then an infection that required further surgery two months later.

“That was the lowest point for me,” says the Spaniard of his third operation. “I was in Barcelona at the time and came down for dinner about 7 or 8pm. I walked downstairs but felt a bit sick, and my missus said ‘look at the size of your knee’.

“It had really ballooned, so I went straight back to hospital that night. They told me it didn’t look good, so they drained it, but the next day it was the same again.

“They had to go inside it to have a proper look, get the fluid out and test everything again. I’d gone through it all before, having the brace on, working on mobility and strength and I was back at the start.

“That was a really bad time because the bacteria could have affected the cruciate too and the cartilage.

“I feel like I’ve done a masters in medicine, I’ve learned that much. I was just very unlucky, but hopefully that’s all over now.”