Report: Tottenham’s Bentancur suffers sprain, but will return by Christmas

Tottenham Hotspur have escaped (so far, knock on wood) from this World Cup relatively unscathed in terms of player injuries. One player who wasn’t so lucky was Rodrigo Bentancur, who had some very good performances with Uruguay in Qatar, but who limped off the pitch in his final World Cup match vs. Ghana.

Uruguay was eliminated in the group stages, which is probably a good thing — a report from the Uruguayan sporting press says that he suffered a sprain in that final match, but is expected to be fit by Christmas.

Rodrigo Bentancur - who went out in the last match against Ghana - suffered a 5cm tear. The player is already in London recovering and should return to the pitch at Christmas.

So, “5 cm tear” sounds acutely terrifying but every aggregator and other source I’ve seen is calling this a “sprain” so that’s what I’m going with as well. And honestly, it could be worse. If Lolo was going to sustain an injury, this is probably the kind we’d want him to have — some kind of muscle injury that requires him to not play football for a couple of week and forces him to rest and recuperate.

Bentancur’s been putting a lot of miles on the tires this season, so a forced rest is probably just what he needs as Spurs head into the back half of an extraordinarily busy season. You never want players to get hurt, but if this is the best way of getting him to slow down and take a beat, well I can live with it.