Palace 1-2 Spurs | Sonny on Rodrigo’s return: “I was getting emotional”

Heung-Min Son gave a typically heartwarming response when he was asked about Rodrigo Bentancur’s return from injury in our 2-1 win at Crystal Palace on Friday night.

Eight months and a fortnight after suffering a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee at Leicester City, the Uruguay international midfielder stepped back out in a Spurs shirt to help see us home to another key victory at Selhurst Park.

Rodrigo almost marked his return with a goal as we controlled proceedings in SE25, 2-0 up at the time, although we had a bit of a scare when Jordan Ayew scored in the fourth minute of eight scheduled minutes of added time and Mateus Franca fired wide in the last seconds, but we did more than enough with a dominant display in the second half rewarded by Joel Ward’s own goal and Sonny finishing a superb team move for 2-0 - his eighth goal already this term.

One new message from Rodrigo! 📥

🤳 @HPE pic.twitter.com/118SWBvDNE

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 27, 2023

That made it eight wins and two draws in our first 10 games of the 23/24 Premier League campaign and moved us five points clear at the top ahead of the weekend’s fixtures.

Asked about Rodri’s return on our Review Show, Sonny said: “It makes me smile. What an unbelievable player to have in our squad. He’s like a new signing.

“We couldn’t wait to have him back and when he came on, I was getting emotional because he’s a good friend of mine.

“I enjoy every single moment with him, even last season when I was suffering with injury, he was always pushing me. I’m just really grateful he came back healthy, hopefully he’ll now stay fit, and he will be a massive boost for the team. I’m very happy to have him back.”