Injury expert Rajpal Brar lauds Tottenham rebuffing Romanian football association’s plea to select Radu Dragusin
Thomas Frank has been dealing with a few serious injuries at the start of his time at Tottenham Hotspur.
James Maddison is expected to be out for the majority of the season after picking up an ACL injury during pre-season, while Dejan Kulusevski will not return until mid-December. Thomas Frank is also having to do without Dominic Solanke, who recently underwent a minor ankle surgery. However, the Spurs head coach now has some good news, with his squad soon set to be boosted with the return of Radu Dragusin.
The central defender suffered an ACL rupture during a Europa League game against Elfsborg on January 30. He has started team training since the start of September, having seemingly completed his rehab and now waiting to return to competitive action.
Injury expert backs Tottenham’s decision to veto international call-up for Radu Dragusin
It has taken close to nine months for Radu Dragusin to be in a position where he is now on the verge of return to action. The 23-year-old has stepped up his return to full fitness in recent weeks, which prompted the Romanian national team to call him up for the upcoming fixtures in the international break.
However, Tottenham rejected the Romanian football team’s plea to select Dragusin for the games against Moldova and Austria last week. Mircea Lucescu’s men are set to face Moldova in a friendly match on October 9, before taking on Austria in a World Cup qualifier three days later.
It was unusual from the Lilywhites as clubs generally do not block a player from representing their national team, but injury expert Dr Rajpal Brar has praised the Thomas Frank-led club for their decision to keep Dragusin in N17 until he is fully recovered.
“I absolutely believe Spurs have done the right thing,” Rajpal Brar exclusively told Tottenham News.
“The final portion of a return to sport can be the most demanding and challenging, so keeping a very close eye on him with the physios and fitness coaches who have been with him this entire time is the most sensible decision.”
Frank should slowly reintegrate Dragusin into his squad
Tottenham are now well-stocked in centre-back department, with duo Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven regaining their form since the start of this season. Kevin Danso showed his reliability with a strong performance against Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League last week in Romero’s absence, while veteran Ben Davies can slot into central defence when required.
With that in mind, Frank can ease Dragusin back into action with little minutes off the bench if the situation permits, or the defender is sent to the Under-21s to get back his match fitness. The 51-year-old should be able to manage the Romanian’s workload, given Romero, Van de Ven and Danso are likely to play majority of the games from now on until January, at least. Then there is young Kota Takai also set to come back into the fold post-international break after recovering from ankle injury.
Nonetheless, Frank and Spurs have made the right decision to rebuff Romanian football association’s plea to select Dragusin for the two international games as it would have been a massive risk to throw him into action without much preparation.
