Heung-min Son a doubt for Tottenham's clash with Watford after 'war-like' meeting with North Korea

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Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP17 October 2019

Heung-min Son is doubtful for Tottenham’s match against Watford on Saturday after playing in the “war-like” World Cup qualifier in North Korea on Tuesday.

The South Korea forward was not expected back until Thursday, leaving him with just one day’s training before the visit of the Premier League’s bottom club.

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino is unlikely to start Son, with Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura and Dele Alli all fresh after the international break.

Christian Eriksen however is also a doubt after suffering a dead leg while away with Denmark.

The first competitive meeting between South Korea and their neighbours — who are technically still at war — hosted in Pyongyang ended 0-0 in front of watching FIFA president Gianni Infantino but in an otherwise empty stadium, almost completely blocked off from the outside world.

As well as no supporters, there were also no foreign media or broadcasters in attendance.

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“The match was very aggressive — it’s a huge achievement just to return safely without being injured,” said Son, who captained South Korea and completed 90 minutes.

Although details of the match are difficult to establish, Choi Young-il, the vice-president of the Korea Football Association, described it as “like war”, adding: “I’ve never seen such [aggression] in football.”

South Korean players had to travel to Pyongyang via Beijing and they were not allowed to use their mobile phones during their stay in the North.

“I liked it because I got to sleep a lot,” added Son, who also questioned the quality of the pitch.

With Tottenham on the verge of crisis following defeats to Colchester, Bayern Munich and Brighton in their past four games, they badly need to get back on track against struggling Watford.

Eric Dier, who made his first League start of the season in the 3-0 loss at the Amex Stadium last time out, says the criticism of the squad shows how far Spurs have come and vowed to battle through the tough spell.

“To be honest, after Brighton, I wanted to play again the next day,” said Dier.

“It’s never nice going into an international break on that note and having to wait this long. We’ve wanted to get to the point where we are considered a team that if you lose two games like that, you come in for a lot of criticism. Now, we have to embrace the situation.

“I feel the mentality in the building is, ‘Let’s fight through this’. I don’t want us to be one of those teams that allow a situation like this to escalate and eventually bring us down. I want us to all stand up and push through it and that’s the feeling from everyone here.

“We’re a very realistic group, very realistic about our situation and we know we need to do better. We’re going to have to be as strong as we’ve ever been to push past this period and you can have my word that everyone here will do the most they possibly can to do that.”

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