Simons' Injury: A Season Lost and Recovery Journey

The tackle at Molineux did more than stop a promising run of form. It ripped an entire season away from Simons, wiped out his summer, and changed the shape of his career’s next chapter.

The ligament rupture ruled him out of the rest of a brutal campaign in which Spurs were scrambling to stay in the Premier League, and it also cost him a place at this summer’s World Cup with the Netherlands. For a player entering his prime, it was a double blow: club survival on the line, country chasing a dream, and he was reduced to a spectator.

Roberto De Zerbi still dragged the north London side over the line. Survival only came on the final day, the tension hanging over the club until the last whistle of the season. The Dutch, though, never got close to their own target in North America. They went out early, beaten on penalties by Morocco in the first knockout round, a campaign that ended with the sense they had left something behind.

Simons watched it all from the outside, counting days and small gains instead of minutes on the pitch.

Now, with pre-season beginning to stir back to life, he has lifted the lid on his recovery on The Sports Agents podcast. The first shock was not physical. It was psychological.

“When they tell you how long this injury is, and for me the first two days were really hard,” he admitted. Those opening hours after the diagnosis can feel endless for any elite player. The calendar suddenly turns from weeks to months, from fixtures to rehab stages.

Then came a shift in mindset. “After that, I told myself, don’t put the pressure really, really high on myself, and I'm seeing improvement every day, and that's something that makes me really happy.”

The contrast with his previous World Cup experience is stark. In Qatar four years ago, he was a bit-part figure, a young player tasting the stage. This time, the sense of loss cut deeper.

“This World Cup was a little bit different because I [felt that I] really could help the team to achieve the goal,” he said. This was supposed to be his tournament, his moment to step from squad player to central figure. Instead, he watched the Netherlands stumble out, knowing he could do nothing.

The memory of the injury itself at Molineux still lingers, but his reflections now are less about the impact and more about what came after. When the most feared injury in elite sport strikes, life shrinks quickly. Training grounds and stadiums are replaced by hospital rooms, treatment tables and long, quiet afternoons.

“I have to be happy just walking again, going to the toilet and even having a drink with my family. So, that was something that really hit into my head.”

It is a brutally honest snapshot of what a ligament rupture does to a player’s world. The game disappears. Routine movements become milestones. Pride gets replaced by perspective.

For Spurs, the reality is equally stark. They are planning for a season, and almost certainly a calendar year, without him. The expectation is that he will not feature at all before the turn of the year, with his full return not anticipated until 2027.

So the club moves on with its rebuild, De Zerbi shapes a squad to avoid another brush with relegation, and the Netherlands look towards their next cycle. Simons, meanwhile, measures progress in steps, not sprints, knowing the real test will come when he finally pulls on that shirt again and discovers what this long, lonely year has truly made of him.