Cesc Fabregas admitted he didn’t feel any pain’ when he scored a penalty against Barcelona in the 2010 Champions League quarter-finals.
Arsenal hosted the Spanish side at the Emirates for the first leg and trailed thanks to a brace from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Theo Walcott equalized in the 69th minute before Fabregas got fouled in the box.
Fabregas, who came through Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, stepped up to take the penalty.
However, the 33-year-old Spanish midfielder had suffered a broken leg from the challenge, despite beating Victor Valdes from the spot-kick in the 85th minute.
The former Arsenal man revealed he was “in agony” the moment he ran over to collect the ball to return it to the centre-spot.
“My leg is broken — and I feel broken, too,” Fabregas told The Sun in 2010.
“When Carles Puyol fouled me to concede the penalty, all I could think about was to grab the ball, put it on the penalty spot and hit it as hard as I could.
“The [adrenaline] must have been flowing through me so strongly because I didn’t feel any pain as I smashed the ball past Victor Valdes. But as soon as I ran to collect the ball to take it back to the centre-spot, I was in agony.
“I had been dreaming of playing for Arsenal at the Nou Camp — it’s all part of the magic of us being drawn against Barcelona. I’ve never disguised how special the club is to me and I desperately wanted to be there and give a performance fit for such a wonderful stadium.”
Fabregas added: “Some people think I may have even broken the leg against Birmingham a week earlier — and, to be honest, I just don’t know.
“Yes, it’s exactly the same spot but I didn’t go into the game against Barcelona thinking, ‘My leg’s broken.'”
Arsenal secured a 2-2 draw at the Emirates to keep their Champions League hopes alive at the time ahead of the second leg at the Camp Nou.
Arsene Wenger’s men In the second-leg, Lionel Messi delivered a master-class performance as he scored an incredible four times to seal a 4-1 win at the Camp Nou after Arsenal took the lead in the opening 20 minutes through Nicklas Bendtner.
Fabregas, who scored 19 times and registered 19 assists in 36 appearances for Arsenal in the 2009-10 season, left the Gunners in 2011 to return to boyhood club Barcelona.
