The East Stand

Son Heung-min’s Spurs record in England and Europe makes him one of Asia’s best

South Korean set to miss RB Leipzig in Uefa Champions League with broken arm as Jose Mourinho fears star’s season over

Barcelona’s Paulino Alcantara, South China’s Lee Wai-tong and Cha Bum-kun were greats but best may be yet to come

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min gets treatment on his injured arm in the English Premier League game against Aston Villa. Photo: Reuters

Formerly of the South China Morning Post, Jonathan White has written about sport from China for nearly 15 years, and covered the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the Fifa World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Published: 5:00pm, 19 Feb 2020Updated: 12:48pm, 18 Jan 2021

South Korean superstar Son Heung-min showed his worth to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday with two goals in a 3-2 English Premier League win over Aston Villa.

The next 10 weeks might prove his real value to Jose Mourinho’s side.

Spurs announced on Monday that the forward will have surgery on a broken arm, an injury he picked up in the opening minute of Sunday’s game. He played through it and deep in second-half injury time he was racing away to score the winner, a sixth goal in the last five games.

He will be out for “a number of weeks”, the club said, guaranteeing he will miss the first leg of the Uefa Champions League round-of-16 game against RB Leipzig and Saturday’s game against Chelsea, a key game in the battle for fourth place and qualification for next season’s Champions League.

His manager Jose Mourinho thinks he will be out for the season. “I'm not going to count on him again this season,” Mourinho said on Tuesday, contradicting the club’s earlier statement.