Sign up to FREE email alerts from Football London - Spurs Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Eric Dier has explained exactly what happened when the Tottenham medical staff discovered that he had appendicitis last month.

The 25-year-old England international was rushed to hospital before Christmas after telling club staff he had some pain in his stomach.

"Just the day before the Burnley game, I was suffering with some stomach pain and it didn't seem to be that serious at the time, it was just a little bit of discomfort," explained Dier in the club's matchday programme.

"We thought it was just a stomach ache because of the symptoms I had at the time and then that changed quite quickly on the Saturday, the day of the game.

"I was in constant contact with the doctors here and when my symptoms changed, it started to show what could be appendicitis.

"I had to get straight to hospital so that's what I did, and then from there I had all the relevant tests and they saw pretty quickly that it was my appendix and I had the operation a couple of hours later."

(Image: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Dier missed around a month of football and it was an odd experience for a man who has missed so little football for Tottenham over the years.

"It was a strange experience because it's not an injury you see very often," the versatile Spurs star admitted.

"You don't know what to do about it, you don't know how to handle it, so all those things were strange, but I think a lot of people are having this operation. It is very straight forward nowadays, although the recovery time can be a bit long and boring, it's different when you're out with something like that.

"It's actually a bit less frustrating because it's something that you don't have any control over, whereas when it's an injury related to training or a game, that can be more annoying because obviously that can sometimes be prevented.

(Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

"You try to look after body as est as you can, but that was something that I had no control over.

"I think I had my first ever injury here at Tottenham this year, one that has actually kept me out of games. I always try to look after my body because if I look after it, hopefully it will look after me."

Dier is now back and being gradually eased back into the team. His appearance from the bench in the win at Fulham marked his 200th appearance for the club. The player feels he has left his mark on Tottenham over the last few years.

"I'm delighted to have reached that milestone. I'm really proud to have played that many games for this club and hopefully I can continue to perform and play even more," he said.

"When you reach those milestones you really feel that you have left your mark on the club. I think a lot of us do over the last four or five years, we really feel like we've built this fantastic group and a great relationship with the fans and that makes it even better.

"I feel like there's a real connection between the squad and the whole club, all the staff here at the training ground and the fans, everyone involved with the club. It's a great place to be.

"Now we need to use that to our advantage. We need to take that experience that we have built and those appearances that we have got now.

"We need to build on them, learn from the experiences that we have gained from them and push on."

Keep up to date with the latest Tottenham Hotspur news, features and exclusives from football.london via our free WhatsApp service .

Text NEWS to 07776197989 and then add the number to your phone contacts book as spurs dot london (case sensitive, with spaces) to receive daily updates and breaking news from Alasdair Gold and the team on Spurs.

Your phone number won't be shared with any other members of the group. Click here for more information on the service.