Mauricio Pochettino says he will never forget Ryan Mason’s contribution to kickstarting his tenure at Tottenham Hotspur and revealed he visited the Hull City midfielder in hospital as the player recovers from the fractured skull suffered at Chelsea on Sunday.

Pochettino described Mason, who came through the youth ranks at Tottenham before moving to Hull last summer in a £10m deal, as “a very special player and a very special person”. One moment, in particular, has stayed with the manager. Pochettino was in his early weeks at Tottenham in September 2014 when his team hosted Nottingham Forest in the Capital One Cup, on the back of four matches without a win. The alarm bells were ringing when Jorge Grant put Forest in front on 61 minutes and it was when Pochettino turned to Mason for the first time.

Mason had played the 90 minutes for the club’s under-21 team at Sunderland only 48 hours previously and he had played so well that Pochettino had named him among his substitutes against Forest. He took seven minutes to make his mark, scoring the equaliser from distance, and he had a hand in the team’s second goal, scored by Roberto Soldado. Tottenham would win 3-1. Mason changed the whole atmosphere of the occasion and it was one that Pochettino can reflect upon as a turning point. He also has fond memories of Mason’s all-round contribution to a hard-fought win at Aston Villa in November of that year, which included a little dig at Christian Benteke. The Villa striker responded by putting his hand in Mason’s face to incur a red card. Villa were 1-0 up at the time. “It was special,” the manager said. “I always remember it was a Wednesday night and Ryan had played in Sunderland with the under-21s on the Monday – very, very late; it was eight o’clock. We called [the academy manager] John McDermott after the game and John said Ryan had been fantastic. For 90 minutes, he fought and showed character on a very difficult pitch and on a very cold night.

“I said he would train with us on the Tuesday morning and, after training, I said he would be on the bench against Forest. The game was difficult and at 1-0 down, I turned to Jesús [Pérez, the assistant manager] and said: ‘Tell Ryan to be ready.’ And, with his first touch of the ball, he scored an unbelievable goal. True, he was a little bit naughty against Villa but his contribution on the game was key. We were in a very difficult position. For me, and my present [squad] today, Ryan deserves a lot of credit because he helped us a lot.”

Pochettino and his Tottenham squad watched Hull’s game at Chelsea in Barcelona, where they were enjoying a warm-weather training break and they were horrified when Mason suffered the injury in a clash of heads with Gary Cahill. Mason was taken to St Mary’s hospital in west London, where he underwent surgery on Sunday night.

Pochettino said the squad had sent Mason a video message from Barcelona and that he, Pérez and McDermott went to visit him in hospital on Thursday afternoon. They had returned from Barcelona late on Wednesday night.

“From day one, when we arrived at Tottenham, we saw Ryan as a player with big talent but who had a bit of bad luck in his career [with injuries],” Pochettino said. “It was our challenge to provide him with the tools to be a first-team player. We were right to trust in him. It was difficult to let him go to Hull but that is football. We have split now but the love and emotion – always, you keep that inside.”

Pochettino reported that Harry Kane, Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose would not play at home against Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup on Saturday because of minor knocks but he was confident the trio would be back for Tuesday’s league fixture at Sunderland.

He also said that he did not envisage any additions to his squad before next Tuesday’s transfer deadline. “Every fan, every person can have their opinion and in that moment, it’s 80,000 managers, 80,000 chairmen, 80,000 sports scientists,” Pochettino said. “But we cannot listen. We have a strong squad – enough to compete in the next four months. It’s not impossible [to sign a player] – 1% maybe – but I don’t believe we will.”