One of Tottenham Hotspur’s players was spotted not moving so freely on the weekend in their win over Luton Town.
Spurs were made to work for all three points on Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with yet another game of conceding first.
Ange Postecoglou was left a frustrated figure at half time, but he was very much satisfied following Heung-min Son’s winning goal.
However, there may be some concern surrounding the fitness of one of the players who came off the bench on the weekend.
Richarlison injury news
Going into the international break, Richarlison had just returned for a 10 minute cameo display in the defeat to Fulham.
The Brazilian had been sidelined for a number of weeks after sustaining a knee issue. Despite travelling with Brazil, he didn’t feature in either of their friendlies.
However, Postecoglou provided a positive assessment on Friday of the 26-year-old’s recovery ahead of the game against Luton.
Although he was not deemed fit enough to start, Richarlison was brought on in the latter stages of the game following Son’s winner.
But journalist Alasdair Gold does not think the £90k-per-week striker was moving like a player who is ready to come back into the starting XI just yet.
He said: ‘Richarlison made some important late touches and battled well, even if he did not look to be moving entirely freely with Spurs and Brazil both managing a knee issue he has had.’
What Richarlison said about his knee injury
It has been a strange few weeks for the Brazilian who saw his rich vein of form come to an end after being sidelined through this knee issue.
Despite being out of the action in the Premier League, Brazil called Richarlison up for the international break with their doctor providing a positive early assessment.
Last month, the Brazil manager said: “Doctor Rodrigo Lasmar got in touch this morning as soon as the news hit the websites, they’re optimistic, they’ve lined up the situation.”
However, that did not exactly prove to be the case as the 26-year-old still hasn’t really returned to the side with just 15 minutes of game time over the last two games.
Not playing a single minute for Brazil during their friendlies against England and Spain was pretty telling too.
After the Spain friendly at the Santiago Bernabeu, Richarlison provided an update on his knee injury, he said: “I spoke to Professor Dorival. He understood that I’m not 100% physically fit. I’ve been feeling my knee a little.
“Even with the effort on a daily basis, I felt it. I’m happy with the team’s performance anyway. We grew a lot in both games and now I will recover well…”
It would appear the Brazilian will not be in a good enough condition to start tomorrow against West Ham which will leave Son playing through the middle again.
And it has to cast a bigger question on Richarlison’s reliability with injuries being a real issue this season.
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