Among all the miserable moments and images that have defined Tottenham Hotspur’s season, one of the most striking came in the second half at Sunderland on Sunday.
Cristian Romero, Spurs’ captain, left the field at the Stadium of Light in tears, consoled by almost every one of his team-mates in turn. Pape Matar Sarr kept a caring arm on him, Randal Kolo Muani tried to encourage him, and Micky van de Ven kissed him on the back of the head.
Everyone knew what a painful moment it was for Romero. It was written all over his face.
Romero had injured his knee colliding with Spurs goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky after Brian Brobbey had pushed Romero in the back as he tried to shield the ball. Kinsky was down receiving lengthy medical treatment and had his forehead wrapped up with a black bandage. But ultimately, it was the injury to Romero, whose knee buckled in the collision with his goalkeeper, which may have the most profound impact on Tottenham’s future.
Anyone who saw Romero’s reaction would have inferred that he was facing a spell on the sidelines. The only question was how bad the injury would be, whether it would rule him out of Spurs’ scramble for survival entirely, or whether it would also jeopardise his dreams of appearing in a second World Cup with Argentina this summer.
It has been widely reported, first in Argentina, that Romero has sustained a knee injury and the expectation is that he will play no further part in the six remaining weeks of the season. Tottenham have declined to comment, but Roberto De Zerbi is expected to address it at his media conference on Friday.
That news will be of little solace to Tottenham fans, given the severity of Spurs’ league situation. Everyone knows what a difficult situation they are in right now. Six league games left following Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Sunderland. Two points behind in-form West Ham United. Three behind Nottingham Forest. And desperately in need of a league win — something they have not achieved since December — in the hope that it might unlock something in the minds of the players.
What makes this injury especially painful is that no player was going to be as important to Spurs’ attempts to stay up as Romero. It is not just that he is arguably the Spurs’ best player. Or even that he is the captain. It is that Romero has a unique mentality, unbending, desperate to win. He has won the lot at international level — one World Cup and two Copa Americas — and was integral to Spurs’ Europa League triumph last season.
Romero has not been at his best this season. There have been plenty of mistakes and needless suspensions. But even in a bad season, he has produced moments — late equalisers at Newcastle and Burnley — that remind you he has the capacity, unlike any other Spurs player, to change the course of a game through force of will.
That is what De Zerbi wanted to tap into. It always felt as if the arrival of De Zerbi could be the best thing for Romero, bringing in a coach who not only played dominant front-foot football, of the sort all players want to play, but who had the passion and conviction that appeals to players too.
In one of his first media appearances at Spurs, De Zerbi told NBC Sports that Romero was “crucial for Tottenham”, was “maybe the most important player in our squad” and that “to achieve our goal, we need the best of Romero”.
Romero arrived for training at the start of last week following international commitments, but was seemingly quickly convinced by his new manager too. In an interview he gave before the Sunderland game, he talked up De Zerbi, calling him a “coach with a lot of passion”, saying he had brought the smiles back to training and pledging that Spurs were “going to be good with him”.
It felt as if that bond would be integral to Spurs’ chances of staying up. If Romero could be De Zerbi’s leader on the pitch and drive the team forward, then maybe between them they could pull off the impossible job.
And there were signs at Sunderland that it might work. One of the first moves of the game started with Romero driving a pass through to Dominic Solanke, who turned, ran, got onto Richarlison’s through ball and produced a cross which Lucas Bergvall nearly converted. Later on in the first half, Romero won a 50-50 and sprinted forward, launching an attack which led to another Solanke effort.
But that knee injury now means we may not see Romero playing for De Zerbi again this season. And whatever happens to Spurs, players like Romero will attract interest in the summer. They will not be playing in Europe next season, and if they go down, not in the season after either. It could well be another summer of speculation over Romero, even though he signed a new long-term deal at the start of this season.
The hope must be that Kevin Danso can come in and provide another secure presence at the back. He has never let Spurs down. But he does not have Romero’s intangibles: his audacity, his uniqueness, his main-character energy.
Spurs’ attempt to stay in the Premier League has just become even harder.