It's been over four years since Korea's road to Qatar began.

Having received a bye to the second round of qualification as they sit within in the top 34 national teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) (seeded third), they were drawn into qualifying Group H alongside Lebanon, Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka and North Korea.

A group stage which also acted as a qualification process for the AFC's third round qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, Korea romped home to top the group, to book their spot at the Asian Cup and the third round of World Cup qualifying.

Kicking off their campaign on 10 September, 2019, they won five of the six games they played, drawing the other, to go unbeaten in the group and collect 16 points. Sonny was involved in four goals in five appearances.

It all started for Sonny and South Korea at the 2023 Asian Cup on Monday (15 January).

Beginning the tournament with the group stage, South Korea were drawn alongside Bahrain, Malaysia and Jordan in Group E - and they kicked-off the tournament with a clash against Bahrain in Al Rayyan.

Winning that game 3-1, they then drew 2-2 with Jordan - Sonny scoring a panenka penalty in the game - before he then scored another penalty as South Korea drew 3-3 with Malaysia to finish as Group E runners-up.

Progressing to the knockout stage, Korea then took on Saudi Arabia in the knockout stages. Despite trailing for over half of the game, a late, late equaliser sent the game to extra-time and then penalties, where Korea eventually edged their middle eastern opponents 4-2 - Sonny scoring his nation's first spot-kick.

Meeting Australia in the quarter-finals - a rematch of the 2015 final - Sonny was on target once more as he scored a stunning free-kick in extra-time to see Korea reach the semi-finals for the first time since the 2015 edition of the tournament.

Their 11th Asian Cup semi-final in their history - they have only failed to reach this stage of the competition on four occasions - they will face a rematch with Jordan (they drew 2-2 in thirgroup stage match last month) in the last four.

Kick-off is at 3pm (UK) on Tuesday 6 February.

Which Spurs games could Sonny miss?

While Sonny is away with his national team, there are a number of matches we will certainly have to play without him while, depending on his progress, there are further games we could be without our skipper.

Games Sonny has missed

❌ Spurs 1-0 Burnley - FA Cup, third round - Friday 5 January
❌ Manchester United 2-2 Spurs - Premier League - Sunday 14 January

Games Sonny could miss

❓ Spurs vs Manchester City - FA Cup, fourth round - Friday 26 January
❓Spurs vs Brentford - Premier League - Wednesday 31 January*
❓Everton vs Spurs - Premier League - Saturday 3 February**
❓Spurs vs Brighton - Premier League - Saturday 10 February***

*If South Korea progress to the round of 16
**If South Korea progress to the quarter-finals
*** If South Korea progress to the final