‘You suffer from the outside’ – Spurs star opens up about injury woes

Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris has admitted that he felt helpless watching the team from the sidelines over the past few months while he was recovering from his injury.

Lloris has been an almost ever-present in the Spurs side for most of his seven and a half years at the club. The Frenchman had played 245 of a possible 263 matches for Spurs in the Premier League until last October (Tottenhamhotspur.com).

However, that all changed in October when the 32-year-old fell awkwardly and dislocated his left elbow against Brighton. He subsequently had surgery on his elbow and was sidelined for three months.

Lloris, who put in a respectable performance upon his return to action against Norwich on Wednesday, has admitted that the past few months were extremely challenging for him.

Speaking to the club’s official website, the goalkeeper said, “As soon as I got injured, as soon as I knew the time I was going to be off, I just accepted the situation and used the time in the best way, with my family, with my little boy who was born in September and then the only thing that is a little strange and frustrating is that you can’t help the team.

“You suffer, but you suffer from the outside, not on the pitch, so it’s even worse. That’s the only thing I missed, sharing good and bad moments with the team, wins and defeats, emotions that I used to feel for the last 15 years, maybe more.”

While he admitted that it was difficult not being able to help the team, Lloris insisted that he used the past few months to refresh his mind and try to improve.

He said, “I’m quite open about the incident. I didn’t want to go inside the goal with the ball so when I realised I was going into the goal, I dropped the ball in front of me but then I slipped and went backwards… I don’t think those type of things happen for no reason, there is always something behind it.

“I’ve been quite lucky to not be injured that many times over the repetition of seasons, of games, of competition with the club, with the national team. Unfortunately, injuries are part of the job, something you have to accept. The only thing is that you feel a little useless. You have to accept that at that moment, you are out of the squad and you give support to your team-mates, but you can’t help.

“I want to thank everyone who helped me to get back, too many to mention everyone, but from day one I received a lot of support inside the Club, outside the Club and that helped me to come back. It’s part of the togetherness in football.

“It was a strange situation for me. I haven’t been injured for so long in my career, but there are always positives even in situations like that. I tried to get the benefit of this period, I tried to refresh a little my mind and it’s always good to question yourself because I’m the type of person who will always look forward and for me, there are always ways to improve.”

The French international also called on the team to put a run together in order to build confidence and finish the season strongly.

Lloris added, “The second half of the season will be decisive. It’s important to build strong confidence. In football, the process to get fully confident is very long but to lose it is so easy. At the moment we have to deal with these feelings.

“After three months I’m back in the changing room and it’s positive. It’s not easy but as I always used to repeat, the players are the main actors and it’s up to us to change the dynamic and try to get a few wins in a row.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I believe having Lloris back makes us considerably stronger than we were before. While Paulo Gazzaniga did well in Lloris’ absence, the Frenchman’s shot-stopping is considerably better than the Argentine. Hopefully, having Hugo back will restore some confidence to our backline and help us build on our improved defensive record in the last three or four weeks.

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