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MADRID: Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is suffering as he waits to see if the London club will allow him to return to his boyhood team Barcelona, according to his Spain colleague Xavi.
Xavi, one of Barca's team captains, said he had spoken to Fabregas during a recent visit to the Balearic Islands.
“I spoke to Cesc in Ibiza and he told me he was suffering because he wants to come,” Xavi told a news conference at a youth training camp in Catalunya.
“That's what he most desires,” Xavi added. “He has done everything to come and he wants Arsenal to let him leave.”
Fabregas, 24, has made no secret of his wish to return to the club he left as a 16-year-old in 2003 but has stopped short of publicly demanding a transfer.
He discussed his situation with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger when he returned for pre-season training last week and did not join his team mates on a tour of Asia due to injury.
Wenger is trying to convince Fabregas there would be no greater achievement for him than to lead Arsenal to success and that it is not the right time for him to leave England.
“I think Cesc has always been torn between his love for Arsenal – that I feel is really genuine – and, something you can understand, the desire to play for the biggest team at the moment in the world,” Wenger was quoted as saying on Monday on Arsenal's website.
“But you can only be in if you are completely in,” the Frenchman added.
“He is the leader of the team. He has to be completely focused and convinced that he wants to stay.”
