Tottenham attacker Dejan Kulusevski has revealed that he declined a possible knee transplant during his recovery from a patella injury suffered in a defeat to Crystal Palace in May 2025. The 26-year-old has been selected for Sweden’s Nations League games, and getting on the pitch against Bosnia and Herzegovina or Poland would be his first international appearance in two years.
A long recovery
Kulusevski missed 526 days of playing time, including the entirety of the 2025/26 season, and missed the start of the current season. He returned to action in substitute appearances against Coventry, Palace and Leeds United.
The rejected treatment
Kulusevski told Swedish outlet Fotbollskanalen that doctors advised him a knee transplant had a “50/50” chance of setting his recovery back for an extended period of time. He said: “The reason it took so long is that there are people who haven’t even recovered from injuries like this”
Kulusevski said: “I spent the whole summer talking to other doctors about having another operation. It would have been a knee transplant — swapping my knee for someone else’s.”
He said he spoke to former teammates Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ivan Perisic, who recommended a doctor in Serbia. Kulusevski said: “So I said no: ‘This is what we’ll do: if I’m in pain when I play, I’ll just have to play through the pain.’ I trained and tried to live like a normal person. I trusted that it would work out. So far, I’ve been right.”
Sweden’s Nations League group
Kulusevski said: “He [the doctor] was so sure it would work out. I needed someone by my side who would say to me: ‘Dejan, this is going to be fine.’ So he was important to me.” Sweden are top of Group B4 in the Nations League.
