Tottenham winger Dejan Kulusevski has revealed that doctors discussed a full knee transplant during the 18-month injury ordeal that kept him out of football, and that he feared at one stage he might never play again.

The Sweden international, 26, suffered a complicated injury to his right patella just days before Tottenham's Europa League final in 2025. His first operation failed, and a second operation also failed to resolve the pain in his knee.

"I spent the whole summer talking to other doctors about having another operation. It would have been a knee transplant. I would have exchanged my knee for someone else's. I said no. If I'm in pain when I play, then I'll have to play with pain," he told Swedish outlet Fotbollskanalen.

A summer of difficult decisions

Kulusevski said the proposed transplant would have meant another 18 months away from the game, and he was told no player had previously returned from the procedure. He admitted he began to accept that his career might be over, saying he trained for ten hours a day without progress and had to tell his mother he did not think it would work.

Back in the Sweden squad

He finally returned last month as a second-half substitute in Tottenham's 3-1 Premier League win over Coventry City, his first appearance in 526 days. He has since come off the bench in each of Spurs' past four league matches, with a 25-minute cameo at Leeds his longest outing so far.

The return has also earned him a first Sweden call-up in two years, with Graham Potter naming him for the Nations League fixtures against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland. Kulusevski expects around 30 minutes in each game. "It's better than zero, so I'm happy," he said. His knee still needs careful management.