Tottenham’s Dembélé Injured Training with Belgium
By Ryan Wrenn
News came out Thursday that Tottenham’s Mousa Dembélé had sustained a injury to his calf whilst training with the Belgian national team in preparation for friendly games against Italy and Spain. He hasn’t yet been recalled to his home club, but has been training separately from the rest of the team and should miss out on Belgium’s friendly against Italy on Friday. There’s a chance that he returns to Tottenham before next week’s match against Spain if his calf strain does not improve.
This isn’t the Belgian’s first injury so far this season. A sprained ankle kept him on Tottenham’s sidelines for the entire month in September. That injury came after a fine opening set of games from the midfielder, performances that might have been good enough to earn him a call up to the Belgian national side for the conclusion of the Euro 2016 qualifiers in September and October were it not for the injury.
His workrate and a surprising goal-scoring turn at Tottenham since returning from injury meant Dembélé was a near lock to be called up for a surprisingly challenging set of friendlies against European rivals. The matches were due to be Dembélé’s first of 2015, a dry spell that followed a World Cup call up the year prior that saw him only participate in one match of Belgium’s quarterfinal run in the tournament.
Dembélé’s inability to crack into the starting XI or substitutes of a very talented generation of Belgians parallels struggles he’s had at Tottenham over the past two seasons. No Tottenham manager has seemed to know quite what to do with the former Fulham man. First André Villas-Boas then Tim Sherwood seemed to think of him as a playmaker, fielding him alongside a more defensively-minded player in the center of the pitch. Dembélé’s hesitant nature and tendency to prefer a dribble over a throughball resulted in some tepid performances, never so good as to dramatically effect Tottenham’s results, but never so bad as to be dropped outright. He earned 63 starts in all competitions over his first two seasons with Tottenham, scoring four goals and assisting five others.
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Those uninspiring results relegated him to the bench for much of Mauricio Pochettino’s first season with Tottenham. He made more substitute appearances – 16 – than starts – 10 – last term. In at least one of those starts, however, Dembélé found his niche. Against Arsenal he featured as a defensive number 10, aggressively closing down opposition defenders as they tried to play out of the back. It worked remarkably well in that 2-1 win, and he featured in the same capacity several more times before the season came to a close.
Regardless of how quality those matches were, no one expected Dembélé to become a regular starter this season. Pochettino has rewarded Dembélé’s efforts though: the 28-year-old has started every game he was fit enough to play in this season. He’s continued last term’s good form, and has added a sudden knack for scoring goals to his repertoire. Against all odds, a player who mere months ago seemed in danger of being let go with the rest of Tottenham’s dead weight has become among the club’s most important cogs.
Next: How Far Can Tottenham Go This Season?
The return to the stature that earned Dembélé a move to Tottenham and regular national team call-ups makes this recent injury scare particularly devastating. This international break was to be the beginning of Dembélé’s campaign to be included in next summer’s Euros in France, a competition that the top-ranked Belgians are among the favorites to win.
Tottenham fans are undoubtedly more concerned with Dembélé’s ability to participate in the match against West Ham when the Premier League returns next weekend. Right now it seems Dembélé has been removed from the Belgium squad merely as a precaution. With any luck, he’ll be fit enough to play against both Spain and West Ham.