DEJAN KULUSEVSKI DESCRIBES KNEE INJURY AND TOTTENHAM RETURN

Dejan Kulusevski said a knee injury led him to tell his mother he feared he could no longer play football. “I don’t think I can play anymore,” the Tottenham winger recalled telling her in an interview with the club. Kulusevski injured his knee after a collision with Marc Guehi during Tottenham’s final match of the 2024–25 season against Crystal Palace. He said a scan showed that a piece of cartilage had broken away and moved to another part of his knee.

The injury kept Kulusevski out of Tottenham’s Europa League final victory over Manchester United in Bilbao. He called the final “one of the hardest days in my life” and said he attended on crutches. Kulusevski missed the following season while recovering. He has since returned to the pitch, playing in Tottenham’s 3–1 win over Coventry City and making a late appearance in a 2–0 victory at Chelsea.

Kulusevski said he spent part of his recovery in Sweden, where he carried out rehabilitation exercises with friends and saw a physiotherapist. He said the exercises began to feel different after that visit and that he no longer felt pain during movements that had hurt the previous day. Kulusevski also credited his wife, Eldina, with supporting him throughout his recovery. “My wife is my idol,” he said, praising her care for their children. Injuries to Savio, James Maddison, Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert could affect Kulusevski’s opportunities in Tottenham’s starting side.