Winks, Lo Celso to undergo surgery, miss significant time on loan

There’s bad news for a couple of Tottenham Hotspur players out on loan today. In separate stories, it has been reported that both Giovani Lo Celso and Harry Winks either have or are set to undergo surgery, and will miss significant playing time for their loan clubs.

We first reported on Gio’s potential surgery a couple of days ago. Then, the reporting was that Tottenham wanted Gio to go under the knife right away to correct a detached quad muscle, but Gio was reluctant because he knew surgery would any slim chance that he could still play some role with Argentina later this month.

But those hopes are now dashed — Gio’s set for surgery and his Qatar dream is dead.

Gio’s tenure at Spurs was rocky and it didn’t work out, but I still feel awful for him as it’s every player’s dream to represent their country in the biggest tournament in international football. We’ve seen the highs — Richarlison’s celebratory video yesterday. This is one of the lows, on a human level.

Elsewhere, Harry Winks has yet to play a minute on loan for Sampdoria after picking up an ankle injury that has persisted despite a lot of rehab this season. Now, according to TuttoMercatoWeb (via SportWitness), Winksy has already undergone an arthroscopic operation to help repair his ankle, a procedure that went “perfectly successful.”

The stakes aren’t as high for Winksy (he wasn’t going to make the plane to Qatar no matter what) but it does mean a longer rehabilitation spell for him and makes it less likely that Sampdoria decides they want to make his loan permanent. (I have my doubts they would anyway, but a good loan would make Winksy a more saleable asset, so this is bad on a couple fronts.)