Alasdair Gold has revealed that four Tottenham Hotspur players were missing from training due to injuries.
Tottenham ran out 4-0 winners in a behind-closed-doors friendly clash against Motherwell a couple of days ago as they ramp up their preparations for the Premier League’s return on Boxing Day.
Spurs were not only without their World Cup stars for the game, but there was also no place for Ryan Sessegnon, Emerson Royal, Lucas Moura, Clement Lenglet and Fraser Forster, as they all missed the game with injury.
Gold spoke about the absent players on his YouTube channel video, with their injuries not thought to be a massive issue to affect selection against Brentford. While Sessegnon had already been working his way back to fitness, the remaining quartet had only recently picked up knocks.
He said: “Missing yesterday [Friday] was Ryan Sessegnon, Emerson Royal, Lucas Moura, Clement Lenglet and Fraser Forster.
“There was some surprise ones there I think we all expected to see. So, Sessegnon – might’ve said this in the last video – is back working on the grass but he’s not yet with the group, I don’t know whether that may be this coming week, hopefully he’ll be back working with the group, obviously that’s the injury picked up against Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup.
“When it comes to Emerson, Lucas, Lenglet and Forster, what I’m told picked up little knocks in training in the days ahead and it was just thought a precautionary thing let’s just not use them.”
TIF Thoughts on Gold’s comments…
Although it sounds as though all five players could be available for the visit to the Bees on Boxing Day, it’s still nonetheless frustrating for Antonio Conte.
The Italian is also without key players Cristian Romero, Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Hugo Lloris due to World Cup action, while Gold also revealed injuries to Ben Davies and Rodrigo Bentancur that both implicate selection for the return to domestic action.
This puts Conte in a position where he’s still yet unable to gauge how far his players are to a return to match sharpness, missing the chance to train and prepare those injured could see some shock selections to favour those that are ready with the return only two weeks away.