London, Aug 4 (IANS) English club Tottenham Hotspur have signed Portuguese international midfielder Joao Palhinha on loan from Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich, the Premier League outfit confirmed on Monday.

The north-London club announced the signing on its official website, explaining the loan contains an option to make the move permanent at the end of the 2025-26 season.

The 30-year-old returns to London just a year after joining Bayern from Fulham, where he impressed with 79 appearances and eight goals in two seasons.

That earned him a move to Bayern last summer in a deal worth just over 50 million euros, but physical problems saw him struggle for form, and he was limited to just 17 league appearances and 26 in all competitions, reports Xinhua.

The news comes as a timely morale booster for the Spurs, who have recently lost midfielder James Maddison to a relapse of last season’s knee injury in a pre-season friendly game against Newcastle United in Seoul on Sunday.

The 28-year-old had only been on the pitch for 11 minutes when he suffered the injury to his right knee, minutes from the end of the 1-1 draw against Newcastle United. He stopped running in obvious pain before being carried off the pitch in tears.

Speaking after the game, Spurs coach Thomas Frank said he believed Maddison had suffered the same injury that saw him miss six games at the end of last season. “James Maddison’s injury looks bad. It was a brutal moment,” Frank said after the game. We’re pretty sure it was the same knee he injured before,” he confirmed.

The coach compared Maddison’s injury with the send-off fans in Korea gave Son Heung-Min, who announced that he was leaving Tottenham after 10 years with the club.

“Sometimes in life and football, things can be both beautiful and brutal; that’s what we got today. It looks like with Maddison’s bad injury and then on the other side unbelievable scenes for Son from his teammates and the respect from the Newcastle players,” he said.

–IANS

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