Jan Vertonghen has described Tottenham’s injury pile-up as “crazy” as the club sweats on the fitness of Harry Kane and Moussa Sissoko.
The key duo were being assessed today following the frustrating 1-0 home defeat to Manchester United which all but ended Spurs’s title challenge.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino admitted Kane’s ankle injury could be a “massive problem”, particularly as Heung-Min Son has flown to join the South Korea squad for the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates, potentially ruling him out of Spurs’s next five games.
It would be the fourth ankle injury Kane has suffered in the last three seasons and to the same foot which sidelined him in March.
Kane was meant to join the rest of the first-team squad by taking today and tomorrow off but he will now report to the club’s training ground to begin initial assessments. A scan will not take place until the swelling has subsided.
Spurs are set to take Fernando Llorente off the market while they wait for news on Kane. The veteran Spaniard, who is paid roughly £100,000-a-week, was available to leave the club this month, with Athletic Bilbao interested, but he could now stay until the summer.
Sissoko pulled up with a groin problem just before Marcus Rashford’s 44th-minute winner, leaving Spurs with one fit senior midfielder in Harry Winks for the second half. Almost every member of Pochettino’s first-team squad has now suffered an injury this season and Vertonghen — himself just back from a month out with a thigh problem — said: “It’s crazy
“I’m sure other teams have had injuries but we’ve had a couple more. You always have to think with the players you’ve got that every time someone got injured, other people were there to perform. I hope we’ll see that this time. It’s one of those things but that’s why we have the other guys, the other guys have to stand up now.
“These two guys are just massive for us,” he said of Kane and Son. “Especially over the last couple of months, they’ve been immense. We’ve got other great players — they’re also vital for us — but we hope [Kane and Son] will be back soon.”
(Evening Standard)
