Harry Winks has thanked his manager Mauricio Pochettino for his words of wisdom which the midfielder said has been crucial in helping him recover from his injury troubles. The 22-year-old England international has had a great season for the club so far, playing a key role for the team in many important games in both the Premier League and the Champions League.
His performances this season have proved crucial with Spurs missing the likes of Dembele, Wanyama, and more recently Eric Dier due to injury troubles. Winks who had a similarly impressive start to last season eventually broke down due to an ankle problem which has plagued Winks throughout his short career.
Speaking to The Mirror about the injury, the midfielder said, “It was a difficult time, one of the most difficult times of my career and my life as well. It was relentless, almost every day, not getting better and it came to the point where I had to have an operation and have surgery to get back.”
“It originally happened a couple of seasons ago at Burnley and I came back, got myself fit which was great and I played in some big games against Real Madrid. But I was always playing with a little bit of pain but the time I felt it the most was after Rochdale away in the FA Cup. “I remember the day after, I knew there was a problem there. I tried to play on for a couple of months afterward and yet I was in and out of training eventually I decided it was time to go to Qatar, get some treatment out there and then have an operation.”
Winks also mentioned how important it was to have Pochettino push him to play through the pain. He added, “When you look with hindsight, it’s important to get that sometimes,” said Winks. “It can toughen you up mentally and physically it was tough because of the ankle and I just needed to get through those moments.”
The midfielder now seems to have understood how to manage the problem and has gotten back to his best. When quizzed about his aspirations for the rest of the season, the 22-year-old talked about how desperate the squad is to win silverware.
He said, “The team is coming of age. There’s a lot of talk about us needing to win a trophy and, of course, no-one wants to win a trophy more than anyone in the team. But our main priority is to just try and improve every season, which we are doing, and hopefully, a trophy will come at the end of that as a reward for all the hard work. We work really hard, we are improving and hopefully, we can come away with some silverware.”
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“We’re in a strong position in the league, we’re well placed but we’ve also won a lot of games playing scruffy as well when we’ve not played so well.”
Tottenham fans will be hoping that Winks is right and that a trophy is just around the corner for this team.
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