It’s goodbye to

CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN is about to become a lone figure at Spurs and an awkward reminder to the arch negotiator Daniel Levy of his stand-out transfer failure.

Erik Lamela may well have played his last game for Tottenham.

Lamela has been ruled out for the rest of the season after Tottenham yesterday confirmed he would have surgery on Saturday on a hip injury.

“The Argentina international has undergone a comprehensive rehabilitation process following the injury in November,” the club said.

“The player has achieved a good level of function but has been unable to reach the stage required to make a full return to training.”

Should Lamela depart, that would leave Eriksen as the sole remaining recruit from the £110million spending spree Spurs embarked upon in 2013, using the cash generated by the then world-record sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.

Lamela, who cost a clubrecord £30million from Roma in August 2013 when Andre VillasBoas was manager,

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has had the most frustrating of seasons. The 25-year-old started strongly, as if to confound the critics who had suggested the final two letters of his surname were silent.

He was a regular pick in an attacking midfield three, helping Spurs to the emphatic victory in October that curtailed Manchester City’s unbeaten run and he was also selected for the Champions League assignments against Monaco, CSKA Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen. Yet he has not played since October 25 when he came on as a second-half substitute at Anfield when an under-strength Tottenham were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Liverpool. Lamela did not appear to be in any trouble during that game but has since been sidelined by a hip problem that has taken far longer to heal than the club’s doctors had anticipated. The player was sent back to Rome in January and a scan suggested surgery would not be required. Yet Lamela continued to report pain during training, thus yesterday’s news. And the player cannot have failed to have noticed that Tottenham have continued to thrive without him. Inter Milan, aware contract talks remain impossible until he regains full fitness, have explored the possibility of bringing him back to Italy and believe they would have to pay no more than £10m to do so. Even with Harry Kane out injured, Tottenham have continued to