‘I’m still just a little bit off’ – Bentancur makes admission about his Spurs form after injury
Rodrigo Bentancur has admitted that he still remains a work in progress, having spent nearly a year on the sidelines but insisted that he is now slowly edging closer to his pre-injury form.
A lot of Spurs fans were excited at Bentancur’s return, expecting the midfielder to add a different dimension to the Tottenham team, given his ability to handle possession in tight areas, progress the ball up the pitch and his engine.
However, perhaps some of those expectations were a little premature as it was always likely to take the midfielder some time to return to his pre-injury levels and so it has proved.
The 26-year-old has looked a little rusty over recent weeks, struggling at times to deal with the pace of the game and making some unforced errors on the ball.
However, Bentancur has remarked that he feels better with each passing day, suggesting that he is now close to returning to his best.
He told Tottenham’s matchday programme (as relayed by Football.London): “I feel really good in myself. For the game at Manchester United, I went into it feeling in great shape, physically. But then we had a fortnight without any game, so really from a match-fitness point of view, I found it a little bit tough to then come back.
“I do believe that I’m gradually getting back to my pre-injury form. I realise I’m still just a little bit off that right now, but I was out of action for over nine, almost 10 months, between the two injuries, and that really is a long time. I have to just be calm, keep working hard and training like l have been and then it won’t be long before I’m back at my usual level once again.”
Bentancur struggled with long-term injury at Spurs
The Uruguayan also opened up on the challenges of not being able to play the game he loves for 10 months, revealing that he is now mentally stronger as a result of having gone through that.
He continued: “With the cruciate injury, I learned a lot. I had it in my head that it was going to be a long journey and so I prepared mentally for months of recuperation.
“It was a long recovery. I think on the second or third day was when it dawned on me how long I’d be out for. I was with my girlfriend, and I think that was the only day where I had to leave the room to go and cry.
“But I had the support of my family, my loved ones and friends and the support of the club, my teammates, the coaching staff throughout which helped me a lot.
“I have had a resilient personality all my life, but the injury has matured me mentally as well, both professionally and in my daily life, and now I take things very positively.
“As for my second injury, I’d got back to feeling good and I was starting for Spurs and then I suffered a blow to my ankle. From the first day I found out what I had, which were four ligaments that broke in my ankle, they had given me 12 weeks.
“The truth is that I had been quite down and frustrated having been injured again. But with Juan Carlos, the physio who treated me here at the club, I did everything to get back. I soon got down to recovery and was able to return to action two months earlier than had been expected. I’m getting back into the swing of things and now I want to return to my previous standards.”
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There is no doubt that having a fully fit and firing Bentancur will improve the Tottenham side significantly as the Uruguayan will bring more creativity in possession, which is something we have lacked in the middle of the park over recent weeks.
Teams have now figured out that we run out ideas if Maddison is marked out of the game but that will not be the case if Bentancur is playing at the levels he was last year prior to his injury.
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