Tottenham ace Rodrigo Bentancur suffers devastating blow after bright first half against Aston Villa
Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur just can’t catch a break, and it is hard not to feel sorry for him after he was forced off injured during Spurs’ 2-1 home defeat against Aston Villa.
After suffering a heartbreaking ACL injury against Leicester City on 11 February, Bentancur finally made his long-awaited return to action against Crystal Palace on 27 October, coming off the bench in the closing stages of Spurs’ 2-0 win.
His progress seemed to be going well and it culminated in the Uruguay international making his first Tottenham start in more than nine months and his first start under Ange Postecoglou against Aston Villa on Sunday 26 November.
What should have been a memorable day ended in misery for the 26-year-old as he was forced off due to injury off the back of a wreckless first-half challenge from Villa’s Matty Cash.
Spurs fans will be all too familiar with Cash after the defender inflicted an injury on then-Tottenham man Matt Doherty a couple of seasons ago, and it seems that the Poland international has come back to haunt the north London side once again.
Postecoglou will be wondering what he has done to earn this string of bad luck as he now faces the prospect of losing yet another first-team star to a potential long-term injury.
What will be most frustrating for Postecoglou and Bentancur is how well he was playing prior to going off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Despite lasting just 32 minutes, it seemed as if the all-action midfielder was getting back to his best.
Alongside Giovani Lo Celso and Dejan Kulusevski, who was playing in the number ten role, Bentancur was pulling the strings in midfield.
As per Sofascore, the former Juventus man completed 86 per cent of his passes, continuously picking out his Spurs teammates in dangerous areas in and around the Villa penalty area, and completed the one dribble he attempted.
However, what was most impressive was Bentancur’s defensive work. When a player suffers such a career-changing injury, it is natural for that player to be a bit cautious upon their return. That was not the case for Bentancur who got stuck in all over the pitch, winning all three of the ground duels he contested in addition to making one tackle and one interception.
Had he not suffered yet another injury, the outcome of the game might have been very different, and Postecoglou will once again feel he has been hard done by as he now looks to scrape whatever players he has left together to make a team for next Sunday’s trip to Manchester City.
In other Tottenham news, it is time for Postecoglou to gamble on his youth amid Spurs’ injury crisis.