Xavi Simons is continuing his recovery from an ACL injury, with the Dutch international among five Tottenham stars currently on the sidelines amid the club’s disappointing start to the season.
Simons, 23, suffered the serious knee injury against Wolves back in April. This required surgery, and ruled him out of Spurs’ relegation battle last term.
De Telegraaf journalist Valentijn Driessen, as cited by Sport Witness, has recently suggested that Simons “won’t really return until February. That’s going to take a while.”
But there is some good news for Spurs fans, with Football.London reporting that Simons is ‘recovering at speed’ and has been ‘working on the grass with his boots on for the past two weeks.’
The report notes that ‘the usual nine-month timeline for ACL injuries would see the Dutchman back towards the end of January but players’ returns vary in relation to the type and location of ligament damage suffered.’
The suggestion, therefore, is that Simons could be back sooner than expected.
This comes as a boost for Roberto De Zerbi, as his side look to bounce back from a start to the season that sees them second-bottom of the Premier League table.
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Updates on five sidelined Tottenham stars
As mentioned, Simons is one of five Tottenham stars currently out injured, which is far from ideal for De Zerbi and his team.
Pedro Porro pulled out of the Spain squad at the start of the international break, and was absent from Spurs’ draw with Manchester United at the weekend.
The right-back is expected to be back soon, though, and potentially for Tottenham’s game against Coventry on Monday next week.
“Pedro – I think – is not [out] for many games,” De Zerbi said ahead of the trip to Old Trafford, as cited by The Standard.
Dejan Kulusevski, meanwhile, hasn’t played since May last year as he continues to recover from a knee issue.
But despite having another setback after returning to first-team training recently, he could finally be back in action soon.
The Standard note that Kulusevski played in ‘a team of senior players against opponents made up of Tottenham’s Under-21s and U18s stars not on international duty’ last week.
He also travelled with the squad for Spurs’ game against Man Utd, though wasn’t named in the squad.
Summer signing Mykhailo Mudryk, meanwhile, remains unavailable for the next few weeks after suffering what De Zerbi described as a ‘stupid’ ankle injury in training.
Finally, Wilson Odobert is set to wait the longest to return of Tottenham’s absentees. An ACL injury suffered in February puts him on course to return in November next year, though some reports have suggested he could come back earlier.