Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has undergone surgery on a ruptured cruciate ligament and is expected to be sidelined for at least seven months.
Bentancur jarred his left knee in Spurs' 4-1 defeat at Leicester on February 11 and went under the knife on Monday, with the club hopeful he will be back by September.
The Uruguay international has established himself as a key part of Antonio Conte's squad since joining from Juventus in January 2022 and this season had been a near-ever present in the Premier League and scored six times in 26 appearances for the team.
His absence has been exacerbated by the loss of Yves Bissouma, who is currently sidelined following surgery on a fractured ankle, with Conte unsure if he will be available again before the end of the season.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr are currently Spurs' only available midfielders.
Former Spurs and Uruguay midfielder Gus Poyet, who suffered the same injury as a player at Chelsea, has backed his compatriot to make a full recovery.
"He got a little injury in the World Cup and it was taking too long to recover and I was a bit worried," Poyet said, who is now the manager of the Greece national team.
"Then when he's coming back, boom, this bad one. He's young, he'll recover fully. It's just to make sure he follows the protocol of the doctors and physios. When you do it properly and you are strong enough mentally, you recover fully. I had my injury at the age of 29. and I played until I was 36. That shows you can make a full recovery."
Speaking to TheTottenhamWay podcast, Poyet added: "I wanted to sign Rodrigo for Betis before he went to Italy. He was with Boca Juniors. It was not possible obviously. Then I lost contact with him - age, life, family, things like that. But I was so happy with how he settled down [at Spurs].
"He's a different player to me, he drives with the ball a lot. Lately he had started getting in the box and scoring."
