Tottenham: Injury blow Heung-min Son hit with armstring injury while playing for South Korea
The forward has been struggling with a groin injury but played the full 90 minutes of Tuesday’s 6-0 win over Vietnam
Tottenham captain Heung-min Son has confirmed he wanted to play for South Korea despite ongoing injury struggles.
The forward was rested for last week’s 4-0 win over Tunisia but played the full 90 minutes of Tuesday’s 6-0 win over Vietnam despite visibly limping at half-time.
Son went on to score in the second half and was shown grimacing in pain, crouched on his haunches with more than 10 minutes to play before seeing out the routine win.
The 31-year-old confirmed afterward that a groin injury meant he had struggled to train ahead of the game but was determined to play no matter what.
When asked about his injury after South Korea’s win, Son said: “Injuries are an inevitable part of living as a footballer.
“I was worried about whether to play in today’s game, but I couldn’t accept coming to Korea and not playing in front of the fans.
The pain was still etched on the face of Son Heung-min and when he stopped to speak, he poured it all out.
“Disappointed, sad, everything,” said the Tottenham forward.
“After the game the dressing room was quieter than normal, but it’s football. It’s about winning and losing. It’s a bad feeling when you play better than them and lose. This hurt me a lot. I can’t sleep tonight.”
Moments earlier, England striker Harry Kane had marched through the Wembley mixed zone without breaking stride, shaking his head when asked by journalists for a chat. The striker always stops. Not this time. Kane was clearly frustrated.
Son attempted to make sense of what had just happened but he struggled. His goal had given Spurs a 1-0 half-time lead against Juventus in the Champions League last-16 second leg for a 3-2 aggregate advantage and when the stadium clock got to 60 minutes, there was almost a serenity about how the team were going about their business.
They were strolling it. They had stretched Juve during an imposing first-half performance only to fail to score more. Son was one of the culprits, even if he was also their star man.
But the main thing was that Juventus still needed to score two. They had been denied a clear penalty when Jan Vertonghen caught Douglas Costa on 17 minutes but, that apart, they did not look threatening.
Then, everything changed. Tottenham’s sense of security was replaced by anxiety and disbelief, and – following the goals from Gonzalo Higuaín and Paulo Dybala after 64 and 67 minutes – it was easy to feel the deflation among the Spurs support.
Although they kept going and Kane hit the inside of a post in stoppage time, it was as if they knew how this was going to play out. On one level, it was another story of gallant failure; of nearly-but-not-quite Tottenham.
Son was spiky. He had been the victim of a double-stamp by Andrea Barzagli which went unpunished, and it was pretty obvious what he thought about it.
“Sometimes there can be accidents,” he said. “It’s the referee’s decision. What can I say? Did I think it was an accident? I don’t know. It went too quick for me.”
Son turned one question back on his interrogator, which was unusual.
Leave a Reply