Former Tottenham midfielder Tanguy Ndombele will be hoping that successful groin surgery spells the end of a tough period in his career.
The 28-year-old officially left Spurs last summer following five difficult years in N17 after arriving from the now-relegated Lyon for a club record fee worth more than £60million in all. Ndombele played just 91 times over that half a decade at the north London side before having his contract mutually terminated last summer.
Nice snapped the Frenchman up on a two-year contract and it all appeared to be going reasonably well in the first half of his season back in France with 25 appearances, scoring twice and laying on two assists across 1,407 minutes of football. Little injuries did cause Ndombele problems though and he was constantly playing through muscle and hip problems and then in March came a sports hernia issue that ended his season prematurely.
It looked like good news when the midfielder was pictured this month back in early pre-season training with Nice, who finished fourth in Ligue 1 last season and will now take their place in the Champions League qualifiers in early August.
However the club confirmed this week that all was not well with the former Tottenham man and he had to go under the knife in a bid to fix a groin injury.
"Tanguy Ndombele underwent successful groin surgery on Tuesday," read a statement. "The OGC Nice midfielder will now follow an adapted recovery protocol, accompanied by the club’s medical staff. The club offers him all its support and wishes him a full and speedy recovery."
Once he recovers Ndombele will be hoping to finally get his career back on track after showing some promising glimpses in the first half of last season back in his homeland.