RICHARLISON has opened up on the groin injury ordeal that led to him not wanting to shoot in warm-ups.
The Brazilian, 26, returned to form on Sunday by scoring twice in Tottenham’s 4-1 win over Newcastle.
Spurs’ triumph marked Richarlison’s first start since recovering from groin surgery.
The forward struggled with the issue earlier in the campaign before resorting to surgery following talks with boss Ange Postecoglou after the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea last month.
He returned to make cameos as a substitute against Manchester City and West Ham, before being handed a start against the Magpies.
Following his two-goal performance, Richarlison said: “I’m very happy to be back playing.
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“I recovered very quickly and this has been an extra motivation for me. Since last year, I had been suffering from these pains and felt a lot especially when it was time to finish.
“So much so that I didn’t even practice kicking in the warm-up before the games, because it always got worse and I couldn’t do the simplest movements afterwards without feeling discomfort.
“Out of my desire to help both the club and the national team, I ended up postponing this surgery for many months, until I realised that I was actually harming myself and the teams, as I was not in a good physical condition to continue.”
Prior to Sunday, Richarlison had scored just one Premier League goal this season – coming against Sheffield United in September.
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His struggles extended to international duty, where he was spotted in tears on the bench during Brazil’s clash with Bolivia.
Reflecting on his season so far, Tottenham’s No9 told the Mail: “I am ‘hungry’, I always want to play, but I learned this lesson the hard way.
“If your health and mental health are not up to date, there is no point.
“A lot of people criticised me, said bad things about me, because I really wasn’t performing at my best, and since my head wasn’t feeling good anymore due to the lack of confidence and off-field matters, which wasn’t great either, everything went down a very bad path.
“So much so that I took a break from social media and I’ve been saying very little, because I want to recover and I am focused on that.
“Thank God, I am feeling much better and without that pain. Very happy for the goals I scored, but also for being able to help the team more effectively.
“I had the energy to recover, I stole the ball from the first goal in midfield and arrived in one piece to finish later, things that hadn’t been happening and that makes me very confident.
“Now we have to think about evolving with each game, having a good sequence and things will return to their place.”
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Richarlison is next set to be in action on Friday night when Spurs travel to struggling Nottingham Forest.
During last season’s clash at The City Ground the former Everton star was crunched in a challenge after performing some keepy-ups.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
