Tottenham’s long wait for Dejan Kulusevski is nearly over. Nineteen months after a brutal right patella injury stopped his career in its tracks, the Sweden international is back in full training and, just as importantly for a fragile dressing room, back in the building.
He has not played a competitive minute since the end of the 2024/25 campaign. In between came the kind of nightmare every footballer dreads: surgery, endless rehab, a setback in August when he first tried to push his body again, and the crushing blow of watching a World Cup summer pass him by from the treatment room.
Now, at 26, he is finally running with the senior group again. No special bib. No isolation drills. Just another first-team player, and that alone changes the mood at Hotspur Way. A squad still searching for its first league win of the season suddenly has a reminder of what its best version once looked like.
Saturday’s clash with Aston Villa will still come too soon. Tottenham will not risk him for a matchday return just yet, with October or November circled as the realistic window for a competitive comeback. After 19 months, they are not going to gamble for 90 minutes in September.
Roberto De Zerbi made it clear that the return has to be handled with care, but his admiration for Kulusevski’s resilience cut through.
“We have to manage Deki in the best way we can, with the medical staff, physical staff, but it’s a great thing for us,” the Spurs head coach said. “He’s a good player, he’s a good guy and he deserves to play again.”
Spurs know exactly what they are getting back. Before his knee gave way, Kulusevski was widely regarded as the standout performer in a turbulent 2024/25 season, a rare constant in a team that lurched from one crisis to another. When he disappeared, so did a huge slice of their attacking identity, and they never really replaced it.
Now he returns to a side that has yet to score a single league goal this season.
Four Premier League games. No wins. No goals. The table already makes uncomfortable reading for a club that talks openly about European ambitions. The new regime has walked straight into a storm, and while De Zerbi has refused to flinch, he knows the optics. Performances might offer encouragement, but the numbers on the scoreboard are what count.
Kulusevski’s re-emergence is one answer. James Maddison might be another.
If Kulusevski’s story is one of long-term absence, Maddison’s is about constant interruption. The 29-year-old playmaker has endured his own brutal stretch, including an ACL tear last August that demanded a huge effort just to make it back for the end of last season. He helped Spurs scramble clear of real danger, only to be hit by further shoulder problems in the current campaign.
De Zerbi, though, sees something in Maddison that he simply does not have elsewhere in the squad. A different rhythm, a different imagination.
“Listen, James is working with the team in the last 10, 15 days. Maybe less than 15 days and even if he’s a technical player, he needs to be fit, to stay in a good condition,” the manager explained, underlining that talent alone is not enough in his system.
This time, at least, Maddison is in contention. So too are Pedro Porro and Sandro Tonali, both of whom sat out the midweek cup defeat to Liverpool. Their availability restores some depth to a group that has looked stretched and short of ideas when chasing games.
Spurs go into the Villa match in a precarious position but not a hopeless one. The manager remains adamant that composure and continuity will turn performances into points. The return of Kulusevski is not a magic switch, and Maddison still needs rhythm, not just minutes. Yet for the first time in a while, Tottenham’s injury bulletin reads like an opportunity rather than an excuse.
The question now is simple: with their creators finally edging back towards the stage, can Spurs remember how to put on a show?
