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'Special' to work with De Zerbi, says Kulusevki
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- 'Special' to work with De Zerbi, says Kulusevki
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Tottenham forward Dejan Kulusevski has credited a Swedish physio who was "able to change my nervous system" for playing a key role in his return to action after 526 days out with knee problems.
The 26-year-old feared his career would be over after several setbacks from a patella injury sidelined him for the entirety of last season.
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"I went to a physio in Sweden," Kulusevski explained to club media. "He was able to change my nervous system and then it felt different. When I did the exercises, I said, 'I don't have pain, like this hurt yesterday. Why is this not hurting today?'.
"Then I did the next exercise and said, 'this is not hurting' and I went into the room to my wife. And I told her, 'it's over, we're going to do this'. From the minute I went into the room, it was better.
"There was still pain but it was different. Now I had control of my leg and then that is when the grind started that summer. I started to play football and it got better every day. I was limping and everything, but it was different now.
"I came here to Tottenham to do the pre-season and they were also impressed with the progress I made. I got a lot of help from them, I got much stronger in a short time and I went from, 'this guy will not play football any more', to playing really good football in just a couple of weeks."
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Kulusevski ended a 17-month absence with a substitute appearance against Coventry and featured the following week against Chelsea - Spurs' first two wins of the season. He went on to emphasise how much he is now looking forward to playing a role under Roberto de Zerbi.
"Yeah, it's an incredible story," he added.
"I am starting to understand how to live with it, how to treat it, how to do my stretching one hour every evening before sleep and I start to understand how I can help this.
"I know I can compete and I know that, because I put in the work. I am not afraid because I put in the work for one year so I know I will be ready to play and the knee is strong.
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"Roberto, I know from before because he is a very special manager so when he came here, it feels also like it is special. I am so happy to have him and the staff because they are different and I like to work with different people."
