Tottenham Hotspur’s Uruguayan midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur suffered a big injury back in February, 2023. He ruptured his ACL in the left knee and had to undergo surgery. After taking surgery, Bentancur was to be sidelined for the rest of the season.
In an interview he mentioned that the injury is healing and his recovery process is going well. He revealed that he might be able to return in about 2-3 months. His injury worsened Spur’s already ongoing injury crisis.
Behold the beard
Very recently Bentancur has been seen in the gym with a long post apocalyptic beard that was met with a lot of reactions on Reddit. One fan reacted: “The league’s not ready for post apocalypse Benta” which another said: “Rodrigo Bentacurmagomedov” referring to former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and still another fan said: “Rodrigoat you mean” referring to his long beard.
There might be a number of reasons as to why Bentancur has grown his post apocalyptic beard. The 26 year old has had injuries before such as an ankle injury, back trouble, a head injury and abductor problems in 2022. This year his progress has been impeded by this ACL injury which has resulted in him missing 21 games for Tottenham.
Football fans are quite familiar with players having different superstitions. Some players keep long hair while others do not shave their beards reaching a goal or career objective while some players get a new look to mark a new phase of their career. There are also players who wear something to maintain their good run of form. Players do all sorts of weird things to make lady luck smile on them.
Other players with long beards
Rodrigo Bentancur isn’t the only player to keep a long beard. There are other footballers who have maintained long beards before. Former Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard once credited his long beard after saving a penalty against Aston Villa. Tottenham Hotspur’s assistant coach and former Australian captain Mile Jedinak had a long, dense and dark beard.
Huddersfield central defender Adam Layton had a long beard which he dyed with the colors of the club kit. Another well known player who was recognisable for his beard was former Portuguese international Raúl Meireles who had a beard that combined well with his mohawk. Of all the notable mentions one man stands out and that is Icelandic central midfielder Ásgeir Börkur Ásgeirsson. His long beard along with his thick moustache resembles that of a Viking explorer
What’s he up to?
It might be that the Spurs central midfielder has grown his beard to continue the process of his speedy recovery and might not trim it before he gets on the football pitch again.