Tottenham Hotspur’s summer signing Mateus Fernandes has not suffered an injury despite widespread fears circulating on social media during the club’s pre-season tour.
The 22-year-old midfielder was signed from West Ham for £85million last month as part of Spurs’ remarkable £237million transfer splurge across the summer window.
Fernandes impressed in his opening two pre-season appearances against MK Dons and Auckland, delivering performances that quickly excited the Tottenham fanbase.
His form against Auckland included a stunning volley from outside the penalty area, the kind of moment that underlined exactly why Spurs moved so decisively to secure his signature.
Concerns began to emerge after training footage appeared to show Fernandes watching sessions from the sidelines rather than participating fully alongside his teammates.
Social media speculation quickly escalated, with some fans suggesting the Portuguese international had become the latest Tottenham player to suffer an anterior cruciate ligament knee injury.
However, those fears are understood to be unfounded, with the reality being that head coach Roberto De Zerbi is carefully managing his players’ workloads during this intensive pre-season period.
De Zerbi has been pushing his squad hard in training, particularly those who returned earlier for pre-season, with factors such as fatigue, minor niggles, illness, and jet lag all being monitored closely.
Fernandes is unlikely to start Tottenham’s upcoming pre-season friendly against Sydney FC in Australia on Wednesday, though this is purely a precautionary workload management decision rather than anything injury-related.
De Zerbi’s style of football is widely regarded as an all-action and physically demanding one, meaning fitness preparation this summer is especially rigorous ahead of the new season.
Strength and conditioning coach Agostino Tibaudi has joined the setup alongside first team fitness coach Marcattilio Marcattilii, two long-time colleagues of De Zerbi brought in to ensure the squad meets the demands of his system.
Senior players are expected to receive greater minutes against Sydney FC than they did in the Auckland fixture, as De Zerbi builds their fitness progressively through the tour.
The manager is also carefully managing the reintegration of returning World Cup players, including Micky van de Ven, Jan Paul van Hecke, Andy Robertson, Kevin Danso, and Lucas Bergvall, all of whom have been stepping up their training efforts in recent days.
