Spurs ITK (in-the-know for those who… well, aren’t) is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. All sorts of ridiculous stories abound from somebody’s uncle’s hairdresser who apparently overheard Fabio Paratici on his phone in negotiations to sign Erling Haaland. That’s why when you start seeing ITKs going on about a serious injury to a Spurs attacker, you tend to treat it reasonably dismissively. Unfortunately, broken clocks are right twice a day, and there’s been an awful lot of smoke from various untested, unproven, and unreliable sources that Dominic Solanke, who was mysteriously absent from Spurs’ matchday squad to face Bournemouth on the weekend, has a quite serious problem.
Solanke missed most of Spurs’ preseason with ankle trouble. It never seemed hugely serious, and Solanke is (was?) a guy with an impeccable injury record. Even last season’s issues seemed little more than a blip, and with Solanke heading away on the Asia tour with the rest of the squad, the knock seemed rather innocuous. He played some limited minutes against PSG, before taking on a substitute role in Spurs’ two opening fixtures of the 25/26 Premier League.
His exclusion from the weekend’s squad did raise some eyebrows, but Thomas Frank echoed the sentiment that there was nothing to worry about: Solanke should return following the international break. Some would say Frank’s assertion would confirm there is nothing to worry about.
Enter Dr. Gregory House:
All of this in isolation seems like a big, fat nothingburger… until the transfer links to strikers started appearing. ITKs (again) indicated Spurs were looking at Lois Openda, Yoanne Wissa, and Jean-Philippe Mateta, which doesn’t mean much… but the real nail in the proverbial coffin was Fabrizio Romano stating that Spurs had inquired about Randall Kolo Muani in the last 24 hours.
We know Spurs have been in the hunt for a winger; but if Dominic Solanke is fine, why are there all of a sudden a bunch of rumors around strikers that Spurs may or may not be interested in?
Maybe I’m going full “Charlie Day in the mailroom” here, and there is no Pepe Silvia. Maybe Dom Solanke is just fine, and just needs a little more recovery time. Maybe he could start against West Ham, or perhaps in Spurs’ first Champions League fixture, against Villareal. Maybe it’s just Twitter aggregators stirring up drama for engagement. Maybe I’m chasing ghosts when it’s just sheets in the wind.
Maybe.
I do wonder, though: if Spurs’ links to strikers start to solidify through deadline day, could there be something more serious going on with Solanke’s injury? I hope Dom is okay. At this point, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t.