Tottenham convince World Cup hopefuls NOT to call up £25million star for international duty

TOTTENHAM have convinced Romania not to call up Radu Dragusin despite their World Cup hopes being in the balance.

The centre-back, 23, was named last week on a preliminary list for the Eastern European nation’s October internationals.

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Reuters

But Romania have agreed with Spurs to leave him out of the proper squad as he continues his recovery from a serious knee injury.

Dragusin damaged his anterior cruciate ligament in January and has not featured since, but has been back in training for the last few weeks.

Spurs chief Thomas Frank said in August that he expected the former Genoa man to be back playing “within a couple of months”, underlining how cautious they are being with his return to play.

Romania play a friendly with Moldova next month followed by a crunch home qualifier to Austria.

If they lose to the Austrians and Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Cyprus, they will not qualify for next summer’s finals.

Dragusin was forced to learn how to walk again following surgery on his right knee.

He spoke about his recovery last month in an interview with Spurs’ media team.

The £25million signing said: “I think it really changed the way I see everything in football.

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“It was my first injury so it was a big change. I had to learn to live with it, train with it but I think it changed me in a good way – it gave me another perspective of how I view everything in football.

“I had to learn how to walk again. I was on crutches, my knee was really stiff from the surgery. It was a long process but, once I got back to normal walking, it became a positive journey.

“I can say I enjoyed it because you need a positive mindset, to embrace the injury, even though it’s the worst part of the game.

“You need to learn to find a way to be happy and enjoy the process—and I think I found that.”