Then there was March, and the international break, and the forty-eight hours that Arteta would later describe, in a club documentary filmed at the end of the season, sitting in his office with the late evening light coming through the blinds behind him, as one of the most anxious moments of his entire managerial life.
Spain had called Izan for the break, the first in a while for two friendlies, both in Seville, with neither of them carrying competitive weight aside from serving as a warmup towards the World Cup.
The first had gone smoothly with Spain winning 3-1.
Izan had scored once and assisted once, and the moment he did so, Luis De La Fuente took him off.
The second game, against Brazil, had been going the same way when it happened.
A Brazilian midfielder, going for the ball, slightly mistimed it and caught Izan's right ankle as he shifted his weight.
