Tottenham Hotspur star attacker Dejan Kulusevski is a player Spurs fans have high hopes for being a major factor in the 2026/27 Premier League season, but it is hard to get a sense of what he can bring to the table after being out for 18 months with an injury so bad that many assumed his career would be over.
While Kulusevski recently admitted that he was upset with a lack of organizational support and people writing him off after the injury, the reality is that he is not out of the woods yet, based on something else he admitted.
Kulu also told reporters, via The Spurs Watch, that surgery was very much on the table for the Swedish international. With the damage to his cartilage, the only thing would have been a knee transplant, which would have necessitated 18 more months off the field, meaning Kulu would have been away from Tottenham Hotspur for three years.
Dejan Kulusevski has a questionable outlook
And then he admitted that he declined the surgery, “I said no. If I'm in pain when I play, then I'll have to play with pain.”
That means Dejan Kulusevski is in a precarious position. The definitive treatment would have been a transplant due to the cartilage being out after the injury, but now Kulu is back on the pitch playing, implicitly stating that he is playing through pain.
The risk of worse injury, aggravation, or simply diminished play as a result of increasing pain or lingering issues with the knee are very real problems, and Tottenham can't just sweep these concerns under the rug. Although Kulusevski looked great off the bench against Crystal Palace and Coventry City, against a more competent defense in Leeds United with more on the line and the team losing, Kulusevski failed to make any sort of an impact.
Kulusevski is a good player, but even before the injury, Tottenham Hotspur fans were questioning if he was good enough to be a starter for a team that wants to be in the top five of the league, considering they were 17th in the Premier League with him as a key player. With his injury now a cloud over him and apparently one that is unlikely to be abated by clear skies, Kulusevski is someone whose future hangs more in the balance than Spurs fans would care to admit. Soon, the Honeymoon of his return will have to yield a more cruel decision.
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