Richarlison’s Tottenham season appears to be over after the Brazilian striker was ruled out of the Copa America with a calf injury.
Richarlison was surprisingly not included in Brazil’s 23-man squad for the Copa America, with manager Dorival Junior explaining on Friday afternoon to Brazilian media that he has a fresh injury which has “not yet been made official by the club”.
Earlier on Friday Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou gave a press conference previewing Saturday’s Premier League game against Burnley during which he said that there was no fresh team news since Spurs’ last game.
Richarlison’s unavailability for the Copa America should rule him out of the Burnley game, Spurs’ game with Manchester City on Tuesday night and then their last official game of the season at Sheffield United next Sunday.
Spurs will then fly to Melbourne the following week for a post-season friendly against Newcastle United on 22 May.
This new injury comes just as Richarlison had shaken off a knee injury that disrupted the second half of his season. He did not start a game between 17 February and 2 May but returned to the starting 11 last week at Chelsea and then made an impact off the bench at Anfield last Sunday, scoring his first goal in three months.
Richarlison has 11 Premier League goals this season and in today’s press conference Postecoglou hailed his improvement. “Richy has been really good for us this year,”
Postecoglou said. “He has got in the double figures this year I am pretty sure and he has missed a huge chunk of it, but every time he has played he has looked effective like he did against Liverpool.
“It’s unfortunate he’s had a season which is reflective of a lot of players where we have never had them for a huge chunk of time consistently.
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Casemiro, Jesus, Silva and Richarlison left out of Brazil Copa America squad
(DARREN STAPLES/AFP via Getty Images)