Dejan Kulusevski reveals Tottenham injury return timeline after detailed surgery update

Dejan Kulusevski has issued a fresh Tottenham injury update while also providing a rather detailed look into the surgery he was forced to undergo back in May.

The Sweden international has been absent for nearly four months - after damaging his patella in the 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace just 10 days before the Europa League final win over Manchester United. Kulusevski was in Bilbao for the huge triumph though and, despite still not being fit, he has completed a similar action with Sweden.

Much of the focus for his nation in the build up to World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Kosovo has surrounded the availability of Alexander Isak. Having not featured or trained for Newcastle in order to force through a move to Liverpool, he is lacking match sharpness.

Isak remained an unused substitute for the 2-2 draw with Serbia while Kulusevski, unsurprisingly, was not involved in the squad but he has been playing a hugely influential role over the last few days. As confirmed by national team head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson, Kulusevski would be part of their group to help out where he can.

As he is away with Sweden, it is perhaps no surprise that he has spoken to local press about his injury - with an update on when he could return revealed.

Speaking to Fotbollskanalen, he said: "The status is good. The rehab is going well.

"Every day I wake up with the same hunger and even more hunger with each passing day.

"I will be on a football pitch in the very, very near future. If everything goes, as it should, as it has so far, I'm very confident that I will be on the pitch in two to three months."

The hope was Kulusevski would be back early into the 2025/26 campaign, but it doesn't quite look as though he will be available. That looks set to place extra pressure on the shoulders of new attacking midfielder Xavi Simons with James Maddison also out because of a long-term knee injury.

The latter underwent surgery on an ACL issue suffered in pre-season with a heartfelt update later posted from a hospital bed. Kulusevski did similar around the time of his operation but has now gone one step further by uploading an image mid-surgery to his Instagram.

He captioned the social media post: "Warning for sensitive content. Thank god it happened so I could see it clear." As he rightly points, the photo is particularly graphic - but it does provide an insight into how big the surgery was and why it means he will likely not fully return until January 2026.

Story Saved

You can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.