Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero being called up to the Argentina squad as he returns from his latest injury will have a familiar if not unfortunately coincidental feel about it.
The 26-year-old has struggled for availability this season under Ange Postecoglou with just 1,118 minutes for Tottenham spread across 12 Premier League appearances, one Europa League showing and one Carabao Cup match. The Spurs vice-captain suffered a toe injury in November and then on his return the following month against Chelsea, Romero suffered a quadriceps injury after just 15 minutes that proved to be a “slow burner” in the words of his head coach and he has not played since.
Now Romero is finally nearing a second return and is expected to be available for at least some of the upcoming games against AZ Alkmaar, Bournemouth and Fulham in the weeks ahead.
Before he has even set foot back in a competitive match for Spurs, Romero has already been named in the preliminary Argentina squad for the World Cup qualifying games against Uruguay and Brazil. He has been selected on the long list alongside former Tottenham team-mates Juan Foyth and Giovani Lo Celso.
While Romero cannot control when he is called up for international duty and the fact that he is included shows he should be available for Spurs very soon, but the coincidence of his return in time for those qualifying games will not go unnoticed by some Tottenham supporters, many of whom have long felt – rightly or wrongly – that the centre-back is often available for his country but not as much for his club.
The Argentine has been unavailable for 29 Tottenham matches this season across 113 days, according to Transfermarkt, but due to the spacing of his country’s fixtures has been available for all four international breaks this season, albeit missing the second games in both October and November, once for the birth of his second child.
