London, Feb 4: Tottenham Hotspur defender Radu Dragusin is set to miss the rest of the season after injuring the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
The 23-year-old suffered the injury during Tottenham’s defeat of Elfsborg in the Europa League last week and has to have surgery.
He is expected to be out for at least six months and some ACL injuries can keep players out of action for up to a year.
Tottenham said Dragusin “will be assessed by our medical team to determine when he can return to training”.Dragusin started 21 of Tottenham’s past 23 games.
The Romania international joins Destiny Udogie, Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner, Wilson Odobert, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke on the sidelines, while fellow defenders Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies have only recently returned to action.
Dragusin joined Tottenham from Genoa in a £25m deal in January 2024.
On Sunday, Tottenham signed Austria defender Kevin Danso on loan for the rest of the season, with a purchase option worth £21m.
On Monday, they had a £70m offer for England defender Marc Guehi rejected by Crystal Palace, but signed 19-year-old attacker Mathys Tel from Bayern Munich.
The number of absentees continues to grow for manager Ange Postecoglou.
Spurs have suffered 27 separate injuries since the start of the 2024-25 campaign.
Of the 24 Tottenham players to start a Premier League match this season – and not including new arrival Antonin Kinsky – only Pedro Porro, Dejan Kulusevski, Lucas Bergvall, Brandon Austin and Sergio Reguilon have not missed a game through injury. (Agencies)
