For some reason, there were bizarre stories floating around the Internet and social media the eve of the preseason tour matchup between Tottenham Hotspur and Sydney FC that new star defensive midfielder Mateus Fernandes had suffered an injury.
The quite insane speculation stemmed from a video in which Fernandes was seen sitting off to the side in training, though there was no real indication of any sort of an injury. And yet, some people wer even taking advantage of this opening for speculation to start saying really wild things like that Fernandes had become the latest key player - after James Maddison, Xavi Simons, and Wilson Odobert - to suffer a torn ACL. Even though it was late at night, Football.London's Alasdair Gold came in pretty swiftly to deny any injury to Fernandes.
Now, after the win over Sydney FC on penalties, Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi has offered a full clarification on the health of Mateus Fernandes and has 100 percent put together any injury news or speculation to bed.
Mateus Fernandes is completely fine
De Zerbi told reporters after the game, via Hotspur Lane, “For him we took the decision not to take any risk and to recover, but the next week, Wednesday, when we start the pre-season in London, he will be ready to work.”
So Roberto De Zerbi basically corroborated everything Alasdair Gold had reported the night before the match. The young Portuguese midfielder had never suffered an injury of any kind; it was just that he did not make the squad and did not play against Sydney as a precaution. Fernandes needed to recover, and De Zerbi was not going to mess around with risking one of his new and already most importnat players with a potential injury.
It is great that De Zerbi is using an abundance of caution with the Tottenham stars this preseason, and though Fernandes is young himself and new to the club, he is already a proven star in the Premier League - and there are others who can make more of the minutes, such as what Luca Williams-Barnett is doing for Spurs in the middle of the park this preseason.
Tottenham fans who were worried about Fernandes can rest easy, and anyone who fell for the worst of the injury rumor bait should not blame themselves; Tottenham fans now have a low threshold with all the awful injuries they have faced over the past couple of seasons.
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