Son flies to Korea for surgery, procedure “more serious” than his last arm injury

Tottenham Hotspur forward and best person in the world Son Heung-Min has returned home for surgery on his injured arm and to recuperate, according to a source in South Korea.

Korean daily newspaper Hankook Ilbo reports that Son arrived in Seoul, with the procedure to take place on Friday. However, it sounds like it’s a more significant injury than the one that kept him out of Tottenham’s side in 2017, and he may not return until May, or possibly not until the start of next season.

Here are the relevant parts, run through the Google machine.

Son Heung-min (28, Tottenham) was found to have had a fracture of the forearm (the bone from the elbow to the wrist) that had been broken three years ago. The surgery is said to be performed at Kyung Hee University Hospital, which was operated three years ago at the time of injury.

The surgery is scheduled for the 21st. Son Heung-min’s injuries were reported to have broken up 2cm in the direction of the elbow from the radial area that had been injured three years ago. Medical treatment suggests that treatment and rehabilitation will take much longer than three years ago. It is highly likely that they will not return to the EPL stage until May.

Not great! But also not unexpected. Jose Mourinho is already on the record saying that he’s not counting on Son at all for the rest of the year which sounded like typical Mourinho fatalism but was probably based on facts that we weren’t privy to at the time.

The Hankook Ilbo article also goes into a little more detail about the injury itself, who will make the Commenters Who Play Doctors On TV say “hmmmmm.”

The injured area is the radius of the forearm made up of two long bones (radius and vertebra). Son Heung-min was injured in the same area three years ago with a similar procedure. In June 2017, he was injured with his right arm in the landing process during a 30-minute first half appearance in the 8th round of Qatar’s Russia World Cup Asian Final Qualifier.

This injury is similar to the one from three years ago, and this time, the time required to return to the stadium will be relatively longer. The injuries may overlap, but the radius is also largely due to the nature of the injury. An orthopedic sports medicine specialist who has served as a member of various medical organizations said, “If the radius is injured again, the recovery period will not be enough for six to eight weeks.”

“It’s also complicated and it takes longer to recover from inflammation.” Son Heung-min said through the media. “The last time the cutting plane was vertical, this time it broke at an angle.” He regretted that “the impact was greater than the last time when falling.”

I’m not a doctor, but that sounds bad! Ultimately it doesn’t really matter — it’s unlikely he’s going to come back and be fit in time for him to have any serious impact on Tottenham’s run-in. Spurs play three matches that month with the last match of the season May 17 at Crystal Palace. If it’s a question of rushing him back or giving him an extended rest, I’d opt for the latter.

I don’t have Son’s room number at Kyung Hee University Hospital or I’d suggest we start a kickstarter to send him flowers.