Tottenham Hotspur academy graduate, Luke Amos, had a dream start to the 2018/19 campaign, as he was a firm favourite with Pochettino on the club’s pre-season tour.
He then made his Premier League debut early on in the season, before tearing his ACL in a game for the U23 side, ruling him out for the season.
Over nine months later, Amos returned from injury to seal a loan move to Queens Park Rangers for the season, with his Tottenham progress set to rewind.
If he had stayed fit, Amos could now be playing at a similar level to Oliver Skipp, as both players were handed a lot of game time for Spurs in the same pre-season tour.
At 22-years-old, Amos also boasts age and wisdom over a number of other academy players at Spurs, yet he must now impress out on loan all over again.
The QPR loanee has been opening up on what life is like with a long-term injury (Independent): “You go through your entire life with a dream and just as you get there… it’s just taken away from you.
“The last nine months have been the toughest of my life. I can remember every single day of the rehab. When the news came, I was just crying. When I had the surgery, my dad was crying. There were days in the gym, it was just me in there doing balance exercises against the wall and I’d break down. I have always been a little bit of a pessimist. I expect things to turn suddenly. But not like that. When I was cleared in May by the physio, I cried just because I’d got through it.”
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He also opened up on life in the academy: “Throughout my life, I can remember comparing myself to people. At 17, I’ve still got Osgood-Schlatters, I could barely run, and I’m seeing people training with the first team. At 18 and 19, they’ve got 40 league games and I don’t have one. I wasn’t very confident. When I first trained with the first-team, I thought ‘what am I doing here?’ Being brutally honest, I wasn’t even sure if I could play for Tottenham.
“Everyone around me was saying you can make it at Tottenham but when you go to Carlisle and get sent back, it’s a big reality check. It put me in a dark place.
“The lows in football are so low. Certain situations make you grow up fast. It’s not like you suddenly step into a league changing room and you’re a man. It’s a tough game. If I have a son who wants to play, fair enough, but there’s no way I’d force him into it.”
And on making his debut: “I whipped off my top so fast. In photos, I look windswept because I took it off so quickly my hair is all standing up on end.
“It went so quick, it was crazy. Of course, as soon as you’ve got a box ticked it’s onto the next one, but I can tell my kids about that day. I played for Tottenham. That’s something millions of kids dream about and I did it. I don’t want to push that under the carpet.”
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