Tottenham winger Mohammed Kudus faces surgery after suffering a new hamstring problem, just months before Ghana's Group L campaign against England, Panama and Croatia
Kudus is set to miss the 2026 World Cup after suffering a fresh injury setback that has plunged his tournament participation into serious doubt.
Sources indicate to Flashscore that scans were conducted on Tuesday after the Tottenham Hotspur winger felt something during an individual training session on Monday.
The development has sent shockwaves through both his club and the Ghana camp with the World Cup less than three months away.
The 24-year-old is now expected to undergo surgery to resolve the hamstring problem, with Spurs bracing for an absence of approximately three months.
That timeline would almost certainly rule him out for the remainder of the Premier League season and, most devastatingly, put his place in Ghana's World Cup squad in serious jeopardy.
A nightmare that began in December
This is not the first time Kudus has been stopped in his tracks by his hamstring this season.
The original injury was sustained back in December, and in the weeks that followed, Tottenham and the player took a careful and considered approach to his recovery.
Rather than rushing into standard treatment, Kudus travelled to Amsterdam to consult with a specialist connected to his former club Ajax, where the decision was made to pursue a more conservative, non-surgical path in the hope of avoiding a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The approach was deliberate. Both Spurs and Kudus were acutely aware of the World Cup calendar, and every decision made during the rehabilitation process was shaped by the desire to have him fit, sharp and available for Ghana's summer campaign in North America.
For close to 100 days, Kudus worked his way back through a painstaking rehabilitation programme. The plan had been for him to return to action after the March international break, a timeline that would have given him sufficient weeks to recapture his sharpness and build his fitness ahead of the tournament.
Monday's training, Tuesday's scans
The sequence of events that brought the situation to a head was desperately cruel. After training individually on Monday, Kudus felt something in his hamstring and immediate concern was raised.
Scans were conducted on Tuesday, and the results confirmed what those around the player had feared. The hamstring issue has resurfaced, and this time, surgery is the likely course of action.
With a recovery period of around three months anticipated post-surgery, Kudus will not feature for Spurs again this season.
The World Cup, which kicks off in June, sits right at the outer edge of that recovery window, and even if the timeline holds perfectly, questions will remain over whether a player returning from his second significant hamstring issue of the season would be in any condition to perform at the level Ghana need from him on the world stage.
A massive blow for Ghana
The timing could not be worse for Otto Addo's replacement, whoever that turns out to be. Ghana parted ways with Addo just last week following back-to-back defeats to Austria and Germany in the March international window, and the new coach will now inherit a squad potentially without one of its most dynamic and decisive attacking weapons.
Kudus is not simply a key player for Ghana; he is their most dangerous individual threat in the final third. The Ghanaian was one of the standout performers at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, scoring two goals to finish as the Black Stars' top scorer in a tournament where they exited at the group stage.
His ability to create moments of magic from nothing, his directness, his goals from midfield - all of that makes him close to irreplaceable in this squad.
Kudus joins the likes of Francis Abu and Mohammed Salisu as players expected to miss the World Cup for Ghana. Ernest Nuamah and Abdul Mumin continue to be in a race against time due to lack of match fitness after recovering from their ACL injuries.
Ghana face England, Panama and Croatia in Group L, with their campaign opening against Panama in Toronto on June 17. It was always going to be a challenging group. Without Kudus, it becomes significantly harder.
