"I've been disappointed in people" – Kulusevski opens up on Tottenham handling of injury

Kulusevski reveals his knee injury nearly ended his career; doctors considered a transplant, but specialist treatment and support from Ibrahimovic and Perisic helped him recover.

Dejan Kulusevski has opened up about the severity of his knee injury and the remarkable nature of his recovery. The Tottenham winger spent months battling a cartilage problem that required multiple operations, with doctors eventually considering a knee transplant as a last resort—a procedure that would have sidelined him for another 18 months with only 50/50 odds of success.

At his lowest point, Kulusevski told his mother he didn't think he'd play football again. He was in constant pain, even struggling to walk upstairs, and considered what life would look like without the sport. His daughter's presence during those dark months provided crucial emotional support.

The turning point came when Zlatan Ibrahimovic and former Spurs teammate Ivan Perisic encouraged him to visit a specialist doctor in Serbia. That doctor's belief in his recovery and focus on nervous system work eventually relieved the pain.

Kulusevski has now returned to international football with Sweden after two years away, and is set to play around 30 minutes in each of Sweden's upcoming Nations League matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland. He has also expressed some disappointment with how certain people handled his rehabilitation at Tottenham, though details remain unclear.