Pablo Mari has opened up on a childhood injury that nearly put a premature end to his football career.
The Spaniard currently stands at 6ft3in and has been a towering figure in his appearances for both Arsenal's first team and the Under-23s.
Mari sprouting up to that height wasn't gradual, however, and the consequences of him suddenly shooting up as a pre-teen could have been very dear indeed.
"I think the hardest time was when I had some injury problems when I was about 10 or 12. One summer I grew 10 or 12 centimetres - it was incredible," Mari told Arsenal's official matchday programme.
"The bones in my hips grew so quickly that they weren't really bone, they were just cartilage, so every time I tried to play football I'd get injured.
"The cartilage was breaking up and I could barely move my leg. That happened three or four times in the space of a year and a half - it never cleared up.
"I got so tired of it after the third or fourth time that I told my dad that if I got injured again I would give up football. I couldn't do it any more."
At 26-years-old, Mari has spent his professional career relatively injury free. A couple of knocks to his ankle and a torn muscle fibre have been the most significant injuries he's picked up and neither have been reoccurring.
Like with any injury, he was hesitant to get back on the pitch but Mari was able to put the problem behind him relatively quickly in order to pursue his football career when he joined Mallorca as a 17-year-old.
"I wanted to play but I hadn't been able to in a year and a half. But thankfully it didn't happen again!" the centre-back added.
"It never gave me any trouble after that. My growth started to stabilise and my bones started to harden, so it wasn't soft cartilage any more.
"Growing 10 or 12 centimetres in a year was mad."
