---
title: "Dejan Kulusevski refused a knee transplant during his 500-day injury"
date: 2026-11-12T12:00:00-05:00
categories: ["opinion"]
url: https://tacticsjournal.com/2026/11/12/dejan-kulusevski-refused-a-knee-transplant-during-his-500-day-injury/
---

# Dejan Kulusevski refused a knee transplant during his 500-day injury

Tottenham Hotspur forward Dejan Kulusevski in [VoetbalPrimeur.nl](https://www.voetbalprimeur.nl/nieuws/2157869/psv-aanvaller-perisic-en-zlatan-ibrahimovic-hielpen-kulusevski.html) translated from Dutch:

> I spent the whole summer talking to other doctors about a third operation. That would have been a knee transplant. They would replace my knee with someone else's. Then I said no. I thought: if I'm in pain while playing football, then I'll just play with pain.
>
> [...] They told me that nobody had ever come back after an operation like that. It was fifty-fifty. Then I said: no, I don't want that.
>
> [...] Zlatan and Perisic really wanted me to go there. That Serbian has been very important to me. He said: don't think about other operations, this is what we're going to do. He was so sure it would turn out well.

Always listen to your gut.

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