Dejan Kulusevski Will Travel With The Matchday Squad For Man Utd On Saturday

An example for all of us is the opinion of Roberto De Zerbi when speaking about Swedish International, Dejan Kulusevski during Friday’s pre-Manchester United press conference.

"He (Kulusevski) is working well, tomorrow he comes with us, also Porro. I want all players tomorrow, tonight and tomorrow, but he is working very well. I think he is an example for everyone, Deki Kulusevski. Forget the player, but the example of how he reacted to the injury, the reaction to being unlucky, the character he showed this time, was an example, a reference for everyone."

Kulusevski returned to full first-team training during the extended international break and completed an internal 11-a-side match against a mixed team of Spurs Under-18s and Under-21s. The Swedish international suffered a serious right kneecap injury during Tottenham’s 2-0 Premier League defeat against Crystal Palace on 11 May 2025, with then manager Ange Postecoglou calling it ‘not serious’

However, after two weeks of training with the first team during the international break, videos surfaced of Deki in action. The attacker was seen feeding Mohammad Kudus a pass to score in a training match, delighting fans online.

The former Juventus player will travel to Manchester this Saturday as Tottenham face Michael Carrick’s United in a 5:30 kickoff on Sky Sports. However, Kulusevski will not be available for selection. Di Zerbi confirmed that the medical staff are assessing the attacking midfielder ‘week by week’ to ensure he isn’t pushed too hard after over 500 days out with his kneecap injury.

It’s a similar scenario to last season when James Maddison travelled and even made the bench once the Italian Head Coach joined the club; he wanted Maddison’s strong personality in and around the squad during a difficult period, also including a long-term injured player, with the normal travel and matchday preparations lifting their own spirits during such a difficult time away from action.

Kulusevski will also be joined by World Cup-winning right-back Pedro Porro, who is also recovering from injury, a hamstring pull picked up during Tottenham’s 3-2 home defeat to Aston Villa before the international break.

It’s important to remember that being part of preparations won’t guarantee minutes this weekend, while rumours suggest Deki might be in the matchday squad sometime in October; there is no need to push him at this stage.

Tottenham and Roberto De Zerbi need three points this weekend, but they also need to be careful as long-term injured players return; Wilson Odobert, alongside Dejan Kulusevski, look to be the closest, while the French Youth International is still far from matchday inclusion. It’s all positive news, something Deki and Spurs fans worldwide haven’t had much of recently.

Before joining Tottenham in January 2022, Dejan Kulusevski developed at Atalanta, impressed on loan at Parma, and won Serie A honours with Juventus.