Rodrigo Bentancur confirms he has been playing for Tottenham with painful new injury this month

Rodrigo Bentancur has confirmed that he has been playing for Tottenham Hotspur and Uruguay with a broken little toe in recent weeks.

The 26-year-old midfielder has battled his way through a year of injuries with a torn cruciate ligament keeping him out for nine months and then on his first start after returning he suffered torn ankle ligaments. Now the Uruguayan has revealed that he has been playing with a broken little toe suffered in a training session before Spurs took on Crystal Palace this month on March 2.

Bentancur started and played 63 minutes of that match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and has come off the bench in the matches at Aston Villa and Fulham since as well as coming on after 65 minutes of Uruguay's 1-1 draw against Basque Country in Bilbao on Saturday, earning his 57th cap.

The midfielder explained to Uruguayan media outlet Teledoce that he just did not want to take off the required time for the toe to heal quickly as he wanted to be available for Ange Postecoglou's Spurs and Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay side.

«The truth is that now the ankle is fine, luckily the knee has recovered, nothing to speak of other than just one broken toe,» he explained of his current fitness. «I broke the little toe of the left foot two or three weeks ago, but this one I'm still playing the same. I broke one of my phalanx and I would have had to stop for three or four weeks so that it could heal but it wasn't possible.

»It was before the Crystal Palace match in London in a training session with a team-mate, but it's almost there. I'm playing with my toe recovering but the truth is that once I warm up I forget it. I did not want to stop, so I'm fine and feeling good 100%."

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