We have long since known that Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski is going to be out for a while after sustaining a knee injury last spring. The guesstimates for his return have ranged from sometime in the next month to sometime in 2026. Now, according to David Hytner in the Guardian, we have a more firm timetable: next January.
Hytner writes that Deki is set to miss the first half of the season after he collided with Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace (those guys again?) last May 11 and sustained an injury to his patella that eventually required surgery. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to Spurs fans, and this falls pretty close to the median for recovery time for this kind of injury. Of course, the hope was Deki is a fast healer and could’ve come back sooner than that, but you know, we can’t have nice things. That’s been made pretty abundantly clear this summer.
With James Maddison already out for the majority of the season after also having knee surgery sustained in preseason, Tottenham are really in a pickle at the 10 spot. I’m not going to rehash all of the transfer crap that’s happened this summer, but just to put a fine point on the fact that Spurs really really need a 10, or they’ll have to make do with a committee at that position as the Premier League season gets underway.
I suggest going back and looking at those pretty pictures I posted yesterday. They work, honest.