Tottenham Hotspur had the chance to bring three players into their Champions League squad on Friday, refining their list ahead of their two-legged last-16 tie in March.
Conor Gallagher came in, quite naturally, given Spurs just bought him from Atletico Madrid last month. So did Mathys Tel, who started the league phase outside the squad, came back in to replace the injured Dominic Solanke, before dropping out again. And the third place went to Radu Dragusin, the back-up centre-back who has just returned from almost one year out with a knee injury.
But there was no place back in the squad for either of Spurs’ two long-term injured creative midfielders. Neither James Maddison nor Dejan Kulusevski — neither of whom has played one competitive minute for Thomas Frank — were included in the list. Which means that any return to action this season will have to be in the Premier League, rather than in Europe.
This has Spurs fans wondering when they will see those two players again. And while Maddison has spoken at length about his recovery from surgery after his anterior cruciate ligament injury last August, less has been known about Kulusevski’s long recovery from knee surgery of his own.
The main issue that Kulusevski has faced is that his has been an especially rare and unusual knee injury. Rather than a more conventional ligament injury, Kulusevski injured his right patella during the Premier League match against Crystal Palace on May 11 last year after a collision with Marc Guehi.
Kulusevski was playing that game in part because he was still recovering match sharpness after six weeks out with a stress fracture in his foot. Quite understandably, he wanted to be at his best for the forthcoming Europa League final 10 days later. But the injury meant that he needed an operation — one he later called “knee patella cartilage surgery” on Instagram — on May 14.
One week later he was on crutches in Bilbao for the final, shuffling around the touchline as far as he could in celebration.
But it was also a mentally challenging time for Kulusevski. He is obsessed with football and being a footballer. Everything in his life is geared towards that. He had never had a long-term injury before, had never been out for more than six weeks. And now he found himself recovering not just from a serious injury, but a rare one too. It was difficult to accept.
At first Kulusevski was focused on setting specific targets for his return to action. But those targets kept being pushed back further and further into the future. There was private optimism, even in October, that he could still be back by the end of 2025. Given the complexity of the injury, it has taken more time than anyone expected back in May for Kulusevski to be ready.
So Kulusevski has decided to change his mindset. He is no longer thinking directly about specific targets for his return. Doing so invites more pressure, and the possibility for disappointment if the target is missed again. Instead, Kulusevski is now focusing on taking one day at a time, not looking too far ahead, but working as hard as he can every single day. He is motivated by trying to keep increasing the intensity of his training every single day. And he is determined that when he comes back, he will do so in peak physical condition. The worst thing would be to come back and not be ready to compete.
Quite naturally Spurs fans want a definitive answer on when one of their club’s most important players will return. Kulusevski was one of the best players under both Antonio Conte and Ange Postecoglou. But not all injuries and recoveries come with that degree of certainty. And Kulusevski was unfortunate enough to get an atypical injury.
Kulusevski is trying to focus on his daily work, rather than external pressure. But to an extent external pressure is unavoidable. There was plenty of interest in Sweden when he invited Graham Potter — the new Sweden national team manager — into his box for Spurs’ 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund last month.
Sweden have their World Cup qualification play-offs next month: Ukraine on March 26, and if they win then either Poland or Albania in Solna on March 31. It will be a huge moment, and would be Kulusevksi’s first World Cup were he to reach it. But the clock is ticking if Kulusevski is to make it. It is a sign of his importance to the national team that he has not yet been ruled out.
His club manager Frank — for whom he is yet to play — has generally not said much about the long recovery process. But at his press conference on January 8 he did go into more detail than before about his recovery.
Frank revealed that the priority was “to remove the pain in the knee”, and that Kulusevski had an injection to that end around the turn of the year. And that within a few weeks, if it had settled, it would be possible to assess his comeback. Kulusevski’s reaction and potential return to the grass is still being assessed.
Frank also admitted that it was a “complicated injury”, but said how much faith he had in Kulusevski to overcome it, “If there is one person that can accelerate that, it is Dejan,” Frank said. “He’s a top pro and has a top mentality.”
Kulusevski is having to be patient. And so, too, are Spurs fans.