Cristian Romero may have worn a Tottenham Hotspur shirt for the last time. With the north London club locked in a desperate relegation battle and their captain sidelined by a season-ending knee injury, questions about his future at the club are intensifying.

Spurs dropped to two points below the safety line after conceding a 95th-minute equaliser to draw 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion, leaving them with five games to rescue their Premier League status. New head coach Roberto De Zerbi declared defiantly afterward that his side could not only survive but win all five remaining fixtures — though Romero will play no part in that effort.

The injury and what it means

Romero sustained the knee injury during a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland on April 12, leaving the field in tears. Those tears may have reflected concern beyond club matters: the FIFA World Cup is fewer than two months away, and his participation with Argentina is now in serious doubt.

His absence leaves a significant hole in Spurs' defence, a point underlined against Brighton when replacement Kevin Danso's error in the box gifted the visitors their equaliser and broke Tottenham hearts once again.

A captain at a distance

De Zerbi has worked to build a tight collective spirit within the squad. Against Brighton, injured players gathered close to the dugout — goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario positioned just behind the substitutes, while Rodrigo Bentancur, making his first appearance since January 7, remained in the dugout after being substituted and shouted encouragement alongside teammates including Yves Bissouma. James Maddison, named in the squad for the first time in 362 days following an anterior cruciate ligament injury, was a visible and animated presence throughout.

Romero, however, sat alone in an executive box high in the stand. Television cameras caught him there when Xavi Simons put Spurs 2-1 up with 13 minutes remaining. While his presence at the stadium could be read as a show of support, the optics of separating himself from the group — at the precise moment De Zerbi was working to forge unity — have not gone unnoticed.

A complicated record

Thomas Frank, who managed Spurs before his dismissal in February, gave Romero the captaincy after Son Heung-Min departed last summer. According to sources, the appointment was not driven by a strong endorsement of his leadership qualities, but rather reflected the club's broader lack of strong characters within the dressing room — a gap Spurs attempted to address by signing Conor Gallagher from Atlético Madrid in January.