The injury-related storm clouds hovering over Tottenham Hotspur are thick and dark right now, and that doesn’t feel great. But if you look close, there’s the teensiest sliver of light that’s poking through — Spurs tweeted today photos of Brazilian striker Richarlison continuing his rehabilitation out on the Hotspur Way grass.
Richy is one of the Spurs injury recoveries that was actually planned — he’s been dealing with a moderate groin injury since the start of the season that he’s been managing and playing through, though it’s very likely been limiting his effectiveness. Just before the last international break, Richy opted to have surgery to effect a permanent fix, which proved to be a good time since he hadn’t been called up by Brazil.
Now it seems as though his recovery is such that he’s starting to work outdoors on the grass again, which is fantastic news. No, that doesn’t mean he’s ready to play any sort of a role against Manchester City this Sunday — it’s very likely that he hasn’t joined the rest of his Spurs teammates in full training anway.
It was previously assumed that he’d be sidelined until the middle of December. But seeing him on the grass give me a dopamine hit, something that’s desperately needed since we’ve done nothing but watch Tottenham players fall like dominoes since the Chelsea match.
If the mid-December timeline holds, that would give Richy about two weeks to build up his strength and stamina, and means he’d likely start getting substitute minutes around the Christmas fixtures. That’d be great — we need him before we get to the point where we have members of the U12s on the bench.