It’s been a year and a half since the injury to Dejan Kulusevski’s knee against Crystal Palace in May 2025, during which Kulusevski has yet to play a minute of competitive football. That streak may be coming to a close very soon. In a powerful profile piece about his injury and recovery in the Daily Mail, it was revealed that Kulusevski played in a 11v11 training ground match during the international break between Roberto De Zerbi’s remaining senior side players (including Deki) and a team comprised
of U18 and U21 players. This is the closest signal yet that Deki could be in line for an emotional return to Spurs’ first team squad very soon.
Deki’s injury didn’t seem that significant at first, with then-manager Ange Postecoglou infamously referring to it as “just a knock” in the post-match press conference, but it was later revealed that instead of doing his ACL, Kulusevski had instead fractured his patella, a complicated and pernicious injury with a significant recovery time. His extended recovery meant that he not only completely missed the entire tenure of Thomas Frank, but also witnessed the significant turnover in the playing squad, the summer World Cup, as well as the dismissal of Daniel Levy and a significant sea change in the operations of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. There were suggestions, including from me on this very website, that Deki might never play football again and could be forced to retire.
I very rarely recommend that anyone actually read the Mail (and this particular article is unfortunately behind a paywall), but the piece is a lovely profile of Kulusevski, his recovery and the mental toughness it took to endure more than 500 days without football as he focused on rehabilitation. The past 17 months have provided glimpses of hope and a few setbacks along the way even after the surgery to repair his fractured kneecap, but leans into his resiliency as he tries to make one of the more improbable comebacks in recent years.
The Mail doesn’t even try to guess when we might actually see Deki back on the bench or getting minutes for Spurs. It notes, correctly, that Spurs have been extremely cautious with Kulusevski, bringing him along gradually as his knee (and the rest of his body) makes a slow return to the stresses of top level football. So while playing in a full, ostensibly somewhat competitive training match is a huge milestone in his recovery and sign post for his return, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll see him on the bench this Saturday when Spurs visit Old Trafford.
But it is the most positive update we’ve gotten about Deki in a hot minute, and now it feels like it’s a foregone conclusion that Kulusevski WILL return to Spurs in the near future. He won’t be at full strength and it very likely will be for mop-up minutes at the end of an upcoming match as he works his way to full fitness, but barring another frustrating setback, it will happen, and hopefully soon. And when it does he’ll have the whole of the Tottenham Hotspur fan base in his corner.
