Ben Davies delays surgery to play for Wales

OK, here’s something new I didn’t know. The BBC is reporting that Tottenham Hotspur defender Ben Davies has decided to postpone surgery in order to be available to play for Wales in two upcoming EURO 2020 qualifiers starting this weekend.

Wait, surgery? Yes, apparently Gentle Ben has been playing through an injury for the past while to the extent that he now requires a hernia operation this summer that will mean six weeks of recuperation. He apparently has been playing through pain this season, though it’s not clear for how long he’s been dealing with this condition.

Cool.

If I put my International Fixture Curmudgeon hat on, I shake my head at the idea of Davies putting off a planned surgery to play additional football through pain, which seems like a bad idea. On the other hand, we know playing for your country is a pretty big deal to a lot of professional footballers, so I guess I can’t really blame him for putting off surgery for a few more days if he thinks he can handle it. On the OTHER other hand, six weeks of recovery time is lengthy, and we want him healthy and ready to go for preseason, so get that surgery now, Ben.

What’s more eye-opening is the idea that he’s needed surgery for a while now. I get that Spurs were in a bit of an injury bind anyway and that there’s no natural left back in the squad aside from Danny Rose. Obviously the injury was manageable or he’d have had surgery whether he wanted to or not, but still. Yikes.

It does put a pretty fine point on just how beat up this Tottenham squad was towards the end of the season, and yet they still made a Champions League final. Makes you wonder how many more of these kinds of stories are going to come out over the coming days and weeks.

Wales play at Croatia this Saturday before travelling to Hungary on Monday.