Tottenham Hotspur star right winger and attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski has been out of action since the end of the 2024/25 season when he sustained a knee injury that actually seemed innocuous at the time but turned out to be devastating. There were worries, at one point, that Kulusevski's career could be in jeopardy as months passed without any update from Thomas Frank or the club during the 2025/26 seaosn until Roberto De Zerbi's arrival.
And even then, Tottenham fans did not have much to go by, not from Spurs themselves or from the Swedish national team. Obviously, Kulusevski did not play at the 2026 World Cup this summer, but he did start to work with the ball and take shots, with Spurs fans either buzzing or being pessimistic at the footage, depending on how they would pass a glass half full vs. glass half empty test.
Injury updates have been sparse, but De Zerbi provided a brief one to the Tottenham Hotspur faithful at the press conference ahead of the first game of the 2026/27 Premier League season this weekend against local rivals Brentford.
Roberto De Zerbi sounds high on Dejan Kulusevski
Roberto De Zerbi said of Dejan Kulusevski's status, via Alasdair Gold of Football.London, “He's working, he's working not with the group, but with the individual coach. I'm observing him a lot, because first of all, he suffers too much, and as a human situation, it's been tough for him, and every one of us we are close with him for this period. Then he's a different player, he's a special player, if he's fit and he's available, he's a different player like Xavi Simons.”
So there is not much to go off in terms of a concrete update on when Kulusevski could return to the squad for Tottenham and play in his first game, and since Spurs have been wisely easing the Swedish international along as slowly as possible after such a major injury, it looks like it may be a matter of months until he comes back.
But what is interesting is what De Zerbi said about Kulusevski towards the end of the quote, calling him a "special player" and comparing the unique impact he could make to someone he has used in a hybrid attacking midfield and winger role to success late last season in Dutch international Xavi Simons. If Kulu still has that juice to him and is someone De Zerbi loves, he could be another impact attacking player that the Italian manager gets the most out of. That's something to look forward to but baby steps.
Add us as a preferred source on Google