DEJAN KULUSEVSKI has been ruled out of the Europa League final after undergoing knee surgery – leaving Tottenham with a midfield crisis.
Swede Kulusevski hobbled off in the 19th minute of Sunday’s 2-0 home loss to Crystal Palace with an injury to his right kneecap after a heavy challenge with Marc Guehi.
The 25-year-old went under the knife earlier today and will now miss next week’s showpiece with Manchester United in Bilbao.
It leaves boss Ange Postecoglou without his three most creative midfielders with Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison already out for the rest of the season.
Young Swede Bergvall, 19, damaged his ankle ligaments in training at the end of last month.
England star Maddison, 28, faces three months out with a knee problem picked up in the semi-final first leg win over Bodo/Glimt earlier this month.
Postecoglou will have only four fit central midfielders – Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Archie Gray – for the three positions in the middle of the park.
It remains to be seen how serious Kulusevski’s injury is with Postecoglou describing it only as a “knock” on Monday.
Big Ange will give an update on Thursday at his press conference previewing Friday’s Premier League trip to Aston Villa.
But there are fears Kulusevski could miss the start of next season and is definitely out of next week’s final.
A Spurs statement read: “We can confirm that Dejan Kulusevski suffered an injury to his right patella in our Premier League fixture against Crystal Palace last weekend.
“Following further specialist consultation, the midfielder has undergone surgery today and will commence his rehabilitation with our medical staff immediately.
“We’re all with you, Deki.”
Postecoglou’s squad have been beset by injuries all season long and had a five-week period over the winter where their absentee list was in the double figures.
It has severely impacted their league campaign, which has seen them lose a record 20 games and put Postecoglou’s position in jeopardy whether they triumph in Europe or not.
Spurs were boosted on Sunday by the return to action of Son Heung-min.
The Tottenham skipper had been out for a month with a foot issue.
Son, 32, came on as a 58th minute substitute in the defeat by Palace.
The South Korean is the only Spurs starter from the 2019 Champions League final still at the club.
Ben Davies, 32, was an unused sub in Madrid.
RED CROSS AT THE BACK
RED DEVILS have injury concerns of their own
MANCHESTER UNITED centre-backs Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt and Ayden Heaven sat out training a week before the make-or-break Europa League final against Tottenham.
The Red Devils travel to Chelsea on Friday for their penultimate match of a miserable Premier League season, but all eyes are on next Wednesday’s showpiece in Bilbao.
Ruben Amorim could be dealing with a depleted backline against Spurs, judging by United’s open training session at Carrington on Wednesday.
Yoro limped off during Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat by West Ham (above) with a foot problem and was conspicuous by his absence at training, as was De Ligt after picking up an issue at Brentford the previous weekend.
Heaven did individual work ahead of last week’s Europa League semi-final second leg against Athletic Bilbao but was not seen at Wednesday’s session, in which Jonny Evans took part along with Toby Collyer.
Diogo Dalot did an individual session before the main group trained as he seeks to make the final, but Lisandro Martinez and Joshua Zirkzee are out for the remainder of the season.
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