Cuti Romero left the pitch in tears after picking up an injury in Spurs’ 1-0 loss at Sunderland on Sunday (Sundayerland? Let’s go with that, finally). Well, I say “picked up an injury” but it was really caused by Bryan Brobbey two-handed shoving him into keeper Antonin Kinsky, something that injured both players.
According to ESPN’s Martin Arevalo, that Brobbey shove is likely the end of Cuti’s season, and quite possibly his Tottenham career if Spurs don’t manage to save themselves from relegation. Arevalo reports that Romero has picked up a knee injury and will be out for the next 5-8 weeks.
Considering Spurs have six matches left, there’s serious doubt that he’ll be ready in time for any of Tottenham’s run-in. If it’s an MCL injury, which is what was surmised, the shorter recovery time means that he could still be part of Argentina’s squad for this summer’s World Cup, which is fantastic for him. Not so much for us.
I still am baffled by match official Rob Jones’ decision to not even whistle Brobbey for a foul, when he clearly shoved Romero directly into Kinsky. VAR couldn’t adjudicate it because it wasn’t whistled by Jones at the time, and VAR cannot retroactively issue cards that go against the match official’s on-pitch decision. That was very clearly at minimum a yellow card worthy offense, which would’ve been Brobbey’s second and a red. Instead we end up with two injured players (Kinsky had a cut on his head and will be fine) and a loss in what was one of the worst officiated matches I’ve seen in a very, very long time.
As you can tell, I’m still angry about this. We might have just witnessed the last appearance by Romero in a Spurs shirt, as it’s pretty clear he’s going to ask to be sold if Spurs are relegated. If they save themselves though… well, let’s not cross that bridge until we come to it.