Tottenham defender Radu Dragusin featured in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Leyton Orient to continue his recovery from injury
Radu Dragusin was among a wealth of Tottenham Hotspur players to suffer an injury last season.
The Romanian international suffered a serious ACL tear in a Europa League tie against Elfsborg in January. It has been a long and difficult road to recovery for the centre-back, who was briefly linked with a summer exit from Spurs. Due to a serious knee injury, he is yet to feature for the north London club in the Thomas Frank era.
Radu Dragusin has been training with his club teammates since September. Surprisingly, he was called up to the Romanian national team twice, hoping the centre-back could play some part in their World Cup qualifiers. However, Tottenham vetoed the Romanian football team’s plea to select Dragusin in a bid to try and help him successfully negotiate the final stages of his recovery from a serious knee injury.
Radu Dragusin gets first minutes after recovering from ACL injury
Thomas Frank gave a positive update on Dragusin’s recovery from ACL injury last month. The Tottenham boss said the defender is set to return to action this month and will play a behind-the-closed-doors friendly to get back match sharpness and rhythm. And it has gone as per the plan.
Tottenham’s official X handle posted a few pictures of Dragusin in action against Leyton Orient in a behind-closed-doors friendly fixture at Spurs’ Hotspur Way training center on Wednesday afternoon. The 23-year-old played 45 minutes as he stepped up his recovery from injury.
There were the central defender’s first minutes since suffering an ACL injury at the start of the year. Spurs have been cautious with his recovery after so long out. As per latest reports, he will join up with Romania for a small period during the international break to train with the squad but will not play any part in their World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia and Herzegovina and San Marino.
The Bucharest-born star will hope to make his return to Frank’s first-team squad soon after the international break. Now, Frank and his coaching staff must be careful about planning how best to integrate Dragusin back into the squad.
Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven remain the Lilywhites’ undisputed centre-back pairing, meaning that Dragusin will find opportunities limited. The Romanian should not worry, though, with games set to come thick and fast after the November break, there will be occasions when the head coach rotates his squad to keep everyone fit and firing.
