Tottenham attacker Dejan Kulusevski has revealed the catalyst for his comeback after 526 days out with a knee injury.
Kulusevski ended a 17-month absence with a cameo off the bench in last week's 3-1 win over Coventry and followed it with another substitute appearance in Saturday's victory at Chelsea.
It continued a remarkable return for Kulusevski, who suffered a patella injury in his right knee in a 2-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace at the end of the 2024-25 campaign and feared his career would be over after multiple setbacks sidelined him for the entirety of last season.
Ahead of facing Palace again on Saturday, Kulusevski told SpursPlay: "It had been like one year and a couple of months and I still can't walk on the stairs. I can't walk on the stairs like a normal guy. I have to play football so in my head I'm not going to give up, but I have to think that if this doesn't work out, what do I do?
"I went to a physio in Sweden. He was able to change my nervous system and then it felt different. When I did the exercises, I said, 'I don't have pain, like this hurt yesterday. Why is this not hurting today?'
"Then I did the next exercise and said, 'this is not hurting,' and I went into the room to my wife. And I told her, 'it's over, we're going to do this.' From the minute I went into the room, it was better.
"There was still pain but it was different. Now I had control of my leg and then that is when the grind started that summer. I started to play football and it got better every day. I was limping and everything, but it was different now.
"I came here to Tottenham to do the pre-season and they were also impressed with the progress I made. I got a lot of help from them, I got much stronger in a short time and I went from, 'this guy will not play football any more,' to playing really good football in just a couple of weeks."
During a wide-ranging interview, Kulusevski explained how watching Spurs celebrate Europa League glory with an open-top bus parade "was probably the most difficult part of the journey" because he could not walk to the bathroom at that stage.
The former Juventus winger also revealed he initially did rehabilitation with a recommendation of old Sweden team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic and paid tribute to "special manager" Roberto De Zerbi.
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"Yeah, it's an incredible story. I am starting to understand how to live with it, how to treat it, how to do my stretching one hour every evening before sleep and I start to understand how I can help this," Kulusevski said.
"I know I can compete and I know that because I put in the work. I am not afraid because I put in the work for one year so I know I will be ready to play and the knee is strong.
"Roberto, I know from before because he is a very special manager so when he came here, it feels also like it is special. I am so happy to have him and the staff because they are different and I like to work with different people."