The Tottenham Hotspur attacker has had a tough year but appeared to be showing some promising signs in a couple of new social media posts
Dejan Kulusevski's latest social media activity appears to suggest the Tottenham star's problematic knee is on the road to recovery after his difficult year.
The 26-year-old missed Spurs ' entire 2025/26 season after he suffered a patella injury in his right knee following a challenge from then Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi in May 2025. The Swede underwent surgery soon after and then required a clean-up procedure this year following setbacks in his attempts to return during the season as he felt discomfort in that knee.
Kulusevski was desperate to at least return to fitness in time to be considered in Sweden's World Cup squad but he found out on the year anniversary of his injury that Graham Potter had decided not to include him among those travelling to the competition.
Potter said then that he hoped the Tottenham man would be back for his club's pre-season this summer and on Saturday Kulusevski uploaded a string of positive Instagram Story posts.
The first was a video of his Sweden team-mates about to board their flight to their World Cup training camp with the Spurs attacker writing above it: "Les go boyz, make it happen, make us proud."
What will have been more positive for Tottenham supporters though was his next Instagram Story which was an extended video clip of him playing his other sporting love, basketball, with some friends. Kulusevski was twisting, turning, accelerating, putting plenty of pressure on that right knee and moving around the court in the two-vs-two session, before setting up his team-mate to score.
The Swede then followed up that post with another one of him either before or after heading out on to a football pitch to work with a Spurs-branded football. Combined with his World Cup good luck post, it all felt like a concerted effort to remind everyone not to forget about him and that he is working hard to return.
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Kulusevski had returned from his rehabilitation abroad to be on the sidelines for Tottenham's crucial final day win against Everton under Roberto De Zerbi which saved the club's Premier League status.
Last week, Sweden's national team doctor Jonas Werner said at a press conference ahead of the World Cup that he has been in continuous contact with Kulusevski and Tottenham's medical team.
"It's been a long story with Dejan. He's done everything he can to get ready, but when it came to deciding [if he would make the squad] he wasn't," said Werner.
"The reason is that he hasn't played football in a year, but even the medical assessments made this spring have pointed in the direction that he wouldn't be ready."
Werner explained in more depth about the problem that Kulusevski faces with his knee.
"Cartilage injuries, like in Dejan's case, are troublesome. They are difficult to treat. Plus, he has it in a place that gets a lot of stress. The injury simply hasn't healed enough to handle that stress," he explained.
When asked if the attacker will be able to come back and play football again, the doctor said: "I have high hopes for that and I really hope so."