Spurs strikers go head to head

Son’s miracle recovery gives Korea a shot – but Richarlison stands in his way

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.

But today, in Doha, the two strikers go head to head as Brazil take on South Korea for a place in the World Cup quarter-finals. Richarlison decorated the opening week of the tournament with two goals against Serbia, the second a fabulous, acrobatic volley, and has shown no aftereffects from his injury. Once the scans were made, it turned out not to be as serious as he first feared. For Son, the margin for error was much finer. The scans revealed four small fractures and the proximity to his eye meant these would have to be stabilised, with an operation in London. Fortunately, the least invasive form of surgery proved successful. Such is the high level of expectation upon Son that, even though he defied the medical experts to return to competition three weeks after his injury, his performance in a 3-2 defeat by Ghana drew criticism at home. Son is the undisputed superstar of the South Korea team and the feeling was that they needed him to fire if they were to achieve their goal of reaching the knockouts. On Friday, he delivered, defying physical exhaustion to launch a counter-attack in stoppage time against Portugal and set up the winning goal. In doing so, he helped the Koreans through to today’s last-16 tie and sparked emotional scenes of celebration. Son was a hero once again. No wonder he erupted in tears at the end.

SON has just one goal involvement in Qatar, his assist for Hwang’s 91st-minute winner.