De Zerbi insists 'Spurs deserved to stay up' after close shave with relegation
Tottenham Hotspurs Football Newsletter
The forward has not played a game of football since suffering a patella injury in May 2025, which then Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou initially dismissed as a minor issue.
Now, after undergoing multiple surgeries and suffering various setbacks in his recovery, Kulusevski has missed the entirety of Tottenham’s fraught 2025/26 campaign.
Consequently, and perhaps unsurprisingly, he has also missed out on a place in Sweden’s squad for this summer’s World Cup.
The player had publicly set his sights on getting match fit in time to fly to the United States with his Blagult team-mates, but Graham Potter made the “very, very difficult decision” to leave him behind.
And Sweden’s team doctors have now explained exactly why Kulusevski’s recovery has taken so long.
“It has been a long story,” said Jonas Werner, the Swedish national team’s doctor since 2021, via Sportbladet.
“Dejan has done everything to get ready to play World Cup football again.
Dejan Kulusevski has been sidelined since May 2025
“Now he was not ready. This is because he has not played football for over a year. And the medical assessments pointed in one direction. It is a combination of different things.”
He continued, explaining the nebulous nature of a patella injury.
“They are difficult to treat. Cartilage has no blood supply and no nerves. They do not heal in the usual way.
“In addition, his injury is in a place where a lot of strain occurs for a football player.
“The kneecap slides back and forth over the femur. An enormous compressive force is developed.
“It is likely that his injury has not healed enough for him to cope with that strain yet.”
Kulusevski has now set his sights on returning to the pitch in time to aid Roberto De Zerbi’s Tottenham for the next Premier League season, and Werner backed him to do exactly that.
“He won't give up hope. He's getting plenty of help from the club and others who are helping him with his rehabilitation.
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“I have good hopes that he will play football again.”