Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur undergoes successful knee surgery, out at least nine months

I hope you enjoyed watching Rodrigo Bentancur play this season, because it’s going to be a long time before you see him again. Reports are out today that the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder and Uruguay international, who injured his knee against Leicester City a few weeks ago, has successfully undergone surgery to repair his damaged knee and now begins the long, arduous recovery.

This is actually good news, in a way. Knee injuries can be devastating, but it’s sometimes worse if it’s an injury that doesn’t require surgery and can just linger on interminably. Beter to identify it now and correct it so he has the best chance of a full recovery. November sounds like a long recovery time, and it is, but it’s pretty par for the course for an ACL injury. A November return would be an optimistic one, but it does sound like we can expect to see Lolo back on the pitch sometime in the second half of the 2023-24 season.

Does that change Tottenham’s summer transfer calculus? That will depend on a lot of factors, not least of which is whether Antonio Conte is still managing the club next season. But it might! Thankfully, Spurs have three (well, currently two) capable backups who can do Lolo’s job in Yves Bissouma, Oliver Skipp, and Pape Sarr.