Little more than a month has passed since Son Heung-Min learned he had fractured a cheekbone near his left eye socket while playing for Spurs in the Champions League.
The injury sent South Korea into a panic. There were three weeks until their first World Cup game and experts warned that their star man would need four to six weeks to heal.
A couple of weeks earlier, Richarlison limped out of a Tottenham game with calf muscle damage and left the stadium on crutches, with tears streaming, fearing a problem like the one that ruled him out for a month last season.