What Son’s long-term arm fracture injury means for FPL

Tottenham Hotspur have revealed that Son Heung-min (£10.0m) will miss “a number of weeks” through injury.

Despite scoring twice in the 3-2 win at Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon, the South Korean managed to sustain an arm fracture, which now requires surgery.

“Son Heung-min is to undergo surgery this week after sustaining a fracture to his right arm. The South Korea international suffered the injury during our win against Aston Villa on Sunday. Following surgery, our medical staff shall be reviewing management options for Son’s rehabilitation with the player expected to be sidelined for a number of weeks.” – Spurs press release

That news comes as a huge blow the Fantasy Premier League community as a 13-point haul on Sunday afternoon caused a rise to 11.3% ownership.

In fact, roughly 68,000 managers had already signed Son between his latest haul and Tuesday morning’s announcement.

Given his recent form, with four attacking returns in three outings, Son had been turned to as a potential replacement for Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8m) when Manchester City’s fixtures got a little tougher.

However, the South Korean has been taken off the table for a potentially long period.

As already mentioned, Spurs themselves are reporting that he faces weeks out of action while some journalists are suggesting that surgery on the injury could leave him out for months.

That would be especially devastating for Spurs with centre-forward Harry Kane (£10.8m) not due back from his hamstring injury until nearer the end of the campaign.

That leaves Lucas Moura (£7.1m) as the most likely to step into the striker role at Spurs although he has not had massive success in that position this season.

Meanwhile Steven Bergwijn (£7.5m) or Dele Alli (£8.4m) may be considered for a false-nine berth but it remains to be seen how Jose Mourinho will solve this latest problem.

Either way, Son’s injury is likely to damage Spurs’ attacking potential and could cause us to look elsewhere for replacements either for him or De Bruyne.

It is a development that could free up more funds for Fantasy managers to double-up on Liverpool attack by owning both Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) and Sadio Mané (£12.2m).

Meanwhile, Nicolas Pépé (£9.1m) has more attacking returns in his last four home matches than any other Arsenal player, and has favourable fixtures on the horizon too.

Son’s injury could allow some managers greater freedom to jump on the 2.4%-owned differential, in spite of an upcoming fixture-less round in Blank Gameweek 28.

Manchester United options may also come into the conversation after Anthony Martial (£7.9m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.0m) both got attacking returns against Chelsea and have favourable fixtures between now and the end of the campaign, especially at home.

We will be discussing Son replacements on the Scoutcast this evening and will have more detailed content on who could come in for the Spurs midfielder later this week.