Tottenham have been buoyed by some rare positive injury news this season with Richarlison not expected to miss much action with the injury that left him in tears nine days ago.
The 25-year-old has had a difficult first season at Tottenham following his £60m move from Everton last summer. The Brazilian suffered a calf injury in October that had him fearing his World Cup hopes were dashed, only for him to return in time for the tournament in Qatar. Once there Richarlison starred for his country but then picked up a hamstring injury in the quarter-final against Croatia, an issue reportedly suffered in the warm-up before he played 84 minutes in the game.
That kept him out until mid-January but around those injury problems he struggled to find his feet for Spurs, scoring in only one game all season with a brace to win the Champions League match against Marseille. Next came a post-match outburst about being in and out of the Spurs line-up, which brought an unhappy response from Antonio Conte, who was not impressed that the Brazilian was thinking about himself rather than the team.
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Then, after a positive performance against Nottingham Forest, Richarlison suffered another problem this month in the warm-up at Southampton, a reoccurrence of his calf injury, which he also had problems with at Everton. It was decided that he was fine to play but he managed just a couple of minutes before leaving the pitch in tears with the injury also ensuring he had to drop out of the Brazil squad for their friendly in Morocco.
football.london understands though that the belief at Tottenham is that Richarlison is set to return to action sooner rather than later from his latest problem.
That will be a boost to Cristian Stellini, who was named as interim head coach on Sunday after Conte's exit from the north London club.
The new caretaker boss learned this week that Emerson Royal could miss much of the rest of the season as he requires surgery on a knee injury.
The 24-year-old suffered the injury in the final moments of his 90-minute display against Morocco in a friendly on Saturday. football.london understands that Emerson, who is now back in London, will have an operation on the meniscus in his knee, meaning a recovery period of at least six weeks.
His injury leaves Spurs short at right wing-back with only January signing Pedro Porro fit and ready to play, with Djed Spence on loan at Rennes, unable to be called back outside the transfer window, and Matt Doherty having left the club permanently for Atletico Madrid in January.
Stellini is also light on numbers down the left as football.london revealed last week that Ben Davies will miss four to six weeks with a hamstring injury. That leaves Ivan Perisic as the only fit left wing-back with Ryan Sessegnon in the final stages of recovery from his own hamstring problem.
Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma remain out injured but captain Hugo Lloris is now back in training following his knee injury and played 45 minutes in a training ground friendly against Ipswich on Thursday.
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