Dejan Kulusevski was offered somebody else's knee this summer. He said no.
The Tottenham winger, back playing after more than 500 days out, has told the Swedish outlet Fotbollskanalen that doctors recommended a transplant during the worst stretch of his rehabilitation. "I spent the whole summer talking to other doctors about having another operation," he said. "It would have been a knee transplant. I would have exchanged my knee for someone else's. I said no. If I'm in pain when I play, then I'll have to play with pain."
'Many were sceptical. Even at the club'
It is a startling admission on its own. What will be read most closely in north London is what came after it.
Kulusevski said plenty of people doubted he would make it back, and that some of them worked at Spurs. "There were many who didn't believe it, many were sceptical. Even at the club. I've been disappointed in people during this period, but at the same time I have to forgive everything."
He did not name anyone and he did not sound like a man looking for a fight. "Sometimes you wish you'd received more help and so on," he added. "But at the same time, I understand we're all part of a business." That is a measured way to put it. It is also, plainly, a player saying he felt short of support while he was at his lowest.
More questions for Tottenham's medical staff
Spurs' medical department has taken a lot of criticism over the past two years, mostly because so many first-team players have been missing for so long. Fans have complained about it, pundits have picked at it, and the squad has rarely been settled as a result.
Kulusevski is not the first to hint at a problem from the inside either. Cristian Romero, when he was club captain, chose to have an injury treated back in Argentina, and when he later thanked people on social media for helping him recover the club's medical staff were not on the list. Two senior players, two separate episodes, pointing roughly the same way. Tottenham would be unwise to wave that off as coincidence.
None of this proves the club got Kulusevski's treatment wrong. A knee that keeps a 26-year-old out for a year and a half is a serious injury by any measure, and doctors disagreeing about a transplant is not negligence. But a player who turns down the surgery he is advised to have, comes back anyway and then says he was let down has made his point.
Thirty minutes at a time for Sweden
The happier half of the story is that he is back in the Sweden squad for the first time in two years. He expects about half an hour in each of this week's Nations League games, at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina at Strawberry Arena on Saturday and away in Poland on Tuesday.
"It's better than zero, so I'm happy," he said. Sweden have something riding on it too: beat Bosnia and they finish top of the group and go up to League A.
Whether the knee holds is the question nobody can answer yet, Kulusevski included. He has chosen to play through pain if he has to, which is brave, and risky, and entirely his call.
Injury context: Dejan Kulusevski, Tottenham Hotspur and Sweden winger. Out for more than 500 days with a knee injury; rejected a knee transplant in summer 2026. Recalled by Sweden for Nations League matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina (Saturday 14 November, Strawberry Arena) and Poland (Tuesday 17 November, away). Quotes given to Fotbollskanalen, reported by Goal.
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