Tottenham Hotspur have not featured star right winger Dejan Kulusevski at all in the 2025/26 season due to a serious knee injury he suffered at the end of the 2024/25 campaign. By now, Spurs fans would have expected Kulusevski back, but the injury has been slow to heal with no real updates on when the Swedish international will come back. James Maddison is already out for pretty much the whole season with a torn ACL, so not having Kulu back already is a massive blow to the attack.
Meanwhile, another star player from the Europa League winning season is missing in action, too. Striker Dominic Solanke hasn't come anywhere close to meeting the 65 million pound price tag summers paid to Bournemouth for him in summer 2024, but he was vital to them winning the Europa League as an all around presence up top, scoring clutch goals in the knockout stages.
Solanke briefly featured in two appearances off the bench this season in the Premier League, but he's been out of action since and even required foot surgery. It's anyone's guess as to when Big Dom will be back for Tottenham, and as the weeks go by with no tangible updates on his status, Spurs supporters have to be seriously concerned.
Tottenham fans have to be concerned
Ahead of this weekend's reunion matchup against Brentford, Tottenham manager Thomas Frank gave two updates on Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke. And even though his injury updates were that there are no updates, that alone spoke volumes in a negative way. The coach said of Kulu and Dom, “When they are ready to be close to joining the squad then I will provide an update.”
So, basically, neither key attacking player is even close to returning, because if they were actually close to making it back to action for Tottenham, then Frank would have been able to give fans a substantial update. As it stands, this quote isn't an update at all, but it does reiterate that neither Solanke nor Kulusevski are anywhere close to returning.
That's hugely disappointing for Tottenham fans, because, again, they would have expected both players would have returned by now. Kulusevski not playing takes out a key veteran who can progress the ball and create chances, and it puts a lot more pressure on Mohammed Kudus to play every game. Meanwhile, Spurs don't have a settled striker besides Kolo Muani, and with Frank using more two striker looks, Solanke's injury hurts that much more.