Spurs’ Jermain Defoe Delayed Groin Surgery To Play In The Second Clash Against Young Boys
Jermain Defoe, the quick-footed striker who played an important role in last season’s campaign which eventually earned Tottenham Hotspur a place in the top four (which meant Champions League qualification), was available for the second fixture against the Young Boys despite being scheduled for a surgery.
Defoe is set to have groin surgery on Tuesday, and will miss two to four weeks after that; he will be unavailable for England’s European Championship qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland and the English Premier League matches against West Brom and Wolves.
The 27-year old striker has been avoiding surgery since before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and as a result of that, his play-time was affected. He did feature in the World Cup for England, and was one of the better players, but because of his groin problem he was restricted in his appearances.
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was hoping the striker could schedule his surgery last Thursday, before the commitment in Europe, but unfortunately for him and the club, the surgeon who was chosen to perform the procedure was unavailable for Thursday, and Defoe settled to wait for the surgery.
The striker revealed prior to the match that he was somewhat relieved to have delayed the surgery because it allowed him to participate in what he described as “one of the biggest games of my career”. He was, of course, referring to the second leg of Champions League playoff round against Young Boys, which the Spurs won 4-0 (with an aggregate of 6-3) to reach the group stages of the Champions League.
He told reporters, “Everyone's looking forward to it. We worked so hard to get here and we want to make the most of it and win the game, and get through to the group stage.”
Spurs trailed by one goal, and were looking to turn the 3-2 score line in their favour. Their performance was shockingly very poor against the Switzerland side in the first leg, and at one point they were trailing 3-1, but they managed to score a late consolation goal, which not only spared them the blushes but also made a comeback a higher possibility. However, Tottenham more than made up for the deficit in the second leg; their resounding 4-0 win was helped by a 32nd minute goal by Defoe, along with a brilliant hat-trick by Peter Crouch.
Before the match, Defoe stressed the importance of the Champions League. “Everyone wants to play in the Champions League. On Tuesday nights, you don't want to be at home watching EastEnders. You want to be at the Lane at playing against the great players in the world and at the fantastic stadiums. For a lot of the boys, it's the first time playing in the Champions League and it's great, especially when you put the hard work in and you feel like you deserve to be there on that stage.”
However, given their confident win over the Young Boys, Defoe will be celebrating a shot at the Champions League group stages instead. Sure beats watching the EastEnders.
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