Matt Doherty has revealed that he frequently came to the Tottenham training ground during the summer break as he was rehabilitating from his knee injury.
Doherty had seemingly displaced Emerson Royal as Antonio Conte’s first choice at right wing-back and was on an impressive run of form when he suffered a medial collateral ligament tear on his right eye against Aston Villa at the start of April (Transfermarkt).
That meant that the Republic of Ireland international missed Tottenham’s final seven league games of the season.
Football.London reported earlier this summer that Doherty, along with Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga, reported to pre-season training a week earlier than the rest of the squad after being out injured towards the end of last season.
Doherty has now explained that he made frequent visits to Hotspur Way even during the summer break to ensure that he was fully fit in time for pre-season.
The right-back told Football.London: “I was in for a lot of the summer because I had to rehab my knee.
“For the first two weeks when everybody left I was in doing rehab with weekends off, out on the pitch doing ball work and fitness work. I didn’t have a choice. I had to be in. I wanted to be back for pre-season ready to go.”
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“I had a week away and then came in for a day. I had three weeks off in a row but I came in during the second week for a couple of days and in again during the third week for a couple of days. I made sure I was ready to go.”
Doherty admitted his knee has not yet recovered fully, particularly given the workload during pre-season but the 30-year-old insisted that he is getting better as he gets more mileage in his legs.
When asked if he now feels good to go, the former Wolves man said: “You can only feel in so much good shape once you start all that running but I feel OK.
“I might need to give my knee a little bit of time, that’s normal. The more you train and the more reps you get it will go away. I can see that. Sometimes it will bother me and the longer the week goes it will ease off.”
Spurs Web Opinion
In the couple of months preceding his knee injury, Doherty was arguably one of our most consistent performers. The 30-year-old was showing the kind of form that made him such a dangerous wing-back during his time at Wolves. Hopefully, he can continue from where he left off at the start of the new season.
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