This summer, Wilson Odobert was one of many exciting teenage signings that arrived at Tottenham Hotspur. Having shone at the 2024 Paris Olympics during France’s silver-medal run, the 19-year-old even scored a goal in the solitary outing he made for Burnley before his £25m move to North London.
Fast forward a little over three months, however, and things are looking worrying for the young Frenchman that had barely arrived onto the scene. After just a handful of performances for the Lilywhites, Odobert sustained a hamstring injury in September that ruled him out of action for over a month, and while he did return to the pitch in October he was quickly sidelined once again.
While it was earlier being considered a “thigh problem“, Tottenham have now confirmed that Odobert has underwent surgery on his right hamstring, confirming a relapse while he was coming back to fitness.
Any injury of muscular nature is worrisome for a footballer, much less a hamstring one. Even worse is a relapse during rehabilitation. Players are already going down more frequently owing to the ever-burgeoning footballing calendar, and then Ange Postecoglou is also famous for having an intense regimen. All of this leaves Odobert at a very concerning juncture of his nascent senior career.
One cannot help but draw parallels from another young wide forward that arrived at Tottenham on the back of a lot of fanfare but found himself hampered by injuries throughout his stint with the Lilywhites. Signed by Spurs in the same summer Gareth Bale left for Real Madrid, €30m man Erik Lamela was perceived by many as the inheritor of the Welshman’s mantle as he arrived from AS Roma, and while he undoubtedly had moments of exceptional brilliance in a Spurs shirt, making 81 goal contributions in 257 appearances, the Argentine also missed a staggering 155 games in total for club and country over the course of his eight-year spell in North London owing to a multitude of injury issues.
Of course, no two players are ever same, but the past does offer us a lesson to learn from. There is a precedence here of a promising player being derailed at Spurs due to injuries, and when we take a wider view we find that similar cases are a dime a dozen in the footballing world.
Wilson Odobert is a quintessential Postecoglou forward, in that he’s capable of operating on either flank as well as centrally. When fit, he could become one of the most lethal weapons in the Australian coach’s arsenal, but that is not how things have begun for him at Tottenham. That he was reintegrated into the squad only to go down mere days later is a very, very worrying signal, and it will be months before he returns to training again; given Spurs’ topsy-turvy trend of results this season, it’s entirely plausible he may find a totally different head coach at the helm by the time he returns to training.
Tottenham need options up front the pitch, especially out wide. Timo Werner, for all his industry, continues to lack that final output. Both Son Heung-min and Richarlison have been struggling for form this season—when they’re on the pitch‚ that is—and both are linked with exits in January as well, however unlikely the likelihood of their mid-season departure may be, especially in Son’s case.
This means, come January, Spurs may very well have to dip into the market for at least a short-term wide option, which will make things even trickier for Odobert when he comes back.
First and foremost, we wish Wilson Odobert and his family the best as he tries to recover properly this time, and hope that Spurs do not rush him back under any circumstance for his own sake. It would be quite a shame if a young player of such promise were to be derailed this early in this career.
