You couldn’t make this up. Well, you COULD, and honestly the way the past two seasons have gone at Tottenham Hotspur, maybe this was to be expected. Alasdair Gold is reporting that Tottenham loan signing and winger Mykhailo Mudryk has picked up an ankle injury in Spurs training this week and will be out until after the upcoming international break, which ends in October.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Honestly.
Mudryk was a surprise loan signing from Chelsea in the waning days of the summer transfer window. It was a big surprise — Mudryk, a £100m signing for Chelsea three years ago, was objectively poor in his first season in the Premier League and then served a 20 month ban for a doping ban that was later rescinded. Mudryk played his first competitive minutes in nearly two years this past weekend when he came on as a late substitute in Spurs’ 0-0 draw at Nottingham Forest.
It was always the case that Mudryk was going to need time to get back up to full speed after so long without competitively kicking a football, and maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s picked up an injury so soon. Thankfully (and I use the word loosely) he won’t be out TOO long — he’ll miss this weekend’s match against Everton, the Carabo Cup match against Liverpool, and the following Premier League game against Aston Villa… at minimum. And he STILL needs to regain that fitness before he can be a net asset.
I had an extremely visceral reaction to the idea of Spurs bringing in Mudryk, even on loan, but I can sorta squint and see how this is a low-risk signing with plenty of upside. Whatever upside there is to bringing in Mudryk, who played for Roberto De Zerbi at Shakhtar Donetsk, won’t be realized for a good while, though. Thanks, injury gods!
