Tottenham midfielder Dejan Kulusevkski has admitted that his long-term injury lay off has left a mark that is unlikely to ever leave him.
The 26-year-old is currently back in national team training with Sweden for this international break. It’s the first time he’s been a part of the group in two years.
The Tottenham midfielder spent the last 526 days out of action following a severe injury that saw him undergo surgery on his patella and the cartilage in his knee.
He suffered that injury in a defeat to Crystal Palace in May 2025 and, when an initial operation failed to resolve the problem, he was forced to undergo a second procedure in the spring of this year.
The midfielder even revealed this week that doctors had proposed a third operation over the summer. That would have seen him undergo a full knee transplant. He rejected the idea, choosing instead to rehabilitate naturally. That decision appears to have paid off.
Summer concerns
He has since made four substitute appearances for Tottenham over the past few weeks. The hope is that he can be a full member of Roberto de Zerbi’s squad over the coming months. The main issue is avoiding another injury and lay off.
He’s now in a much better place than he was in the summer, when the pain had him thinking his career was definitely over.
“Things weren’t getting any better. It was so painful just to walk upstairs,” he said.
“I started thinking, ‘Well, if it’s over, it’s over.’ I even had to tell my mom that I didn’t think it was going to work out, just to prepare her and the rest of the family. But right around those days, things started to change.
“And once things started to improve, I felt that I would make it through.”
Left a mark
Things are not perfect, though. The midfielder admits that there are still times when something doesn’t feel right. The injury has left a mark that simply won’t go away.
“On match days, it’s fine,” he added.
“There are days when it doesn’t feel like it used to, but once I’m out on the pitch, I don’t even think about it. I’m really happy with how things are right now.”
The Tottenham man is very much focused on the future. But he admits he was forced to consider his life carefully during the long, worrying injury lay off.
“Sometimes it felt like I’d been given an impossible task,” he concluded.
“My answer was to move to an island and be with my family. That was the best thing I could come up with. If I hadn’t had my daughter, it would have been really tough. I would have been lost.
“But she was so much fun. I just thought, ‘As long as I can be with her, I’ll be happy.”
