Tottenham injury, suspension list: Will Spurs enter the transfer market to bolster Mauricio Pochettino’s squad?

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Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP16 January 2019

Mauricio Pochettino’s mini-break to Barcelona this week was supposed to be an opportunity for the Tottenham manager to switch off, clear his head and return refreshed ahead of a run of five games in two weeks that could define the club’s season.

Instead, Pochettino will have spent the past day or two in the Spanish city thinking of solutions to Harry Kane’s injury absence, after Spurs confirmed the striker had suffered ankle ligament damage for the fourth time in his career against Man Utd on Sunday.

The club have said Kane is not expected to return to training until early March, definitely ruling him out of at least four League games, the EFL Cup semi-final second leg at Chelsea, the FA Cup fourth-round against Crystal Palace and the first leg of their Champions League last 16 clash with Borussia Dortmund.

Privately, the England captain is confident he can be fit sooner than the club’s prognosis, with a potential League Cup Final on February 24 or Spurs’s trip to Chelsea three days later in his sights .

Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images
Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty I

In the meantime, Pochettino has an attacking headache, particularly with Heung-Min Son away at the Asian Cup — potentially ruling Kane’s most natural deputy out of the next five matches.

There are, however, solutions. Pochettino does not trust Fernando Llorente to start in the Premier League — the Spaniard last did so over a year ago, scoring in a 2-0 win at his former club Swansea — but the veteran will not be leaving the club this month and remains firmly in his manager’s thinking. Elsewhere, there will be no comeback for Vincent Janssen, the £17million striker who is now playing for the under-23s, but Pochettino has faith in Lucas Moura, Erik Lamela and even Dele Alli to deputise at centre forward.

Lucas, who is facing a battle to recover from a knee injury in time to face Fulham on Sunday, impressed in a front-two with Kane on Son’s last international absence at the Asian Games, scoring a brace in the 3-0 win at Manchester United in August. In short, Spurs have options up front, which is more than can be said for Pochettino’s midfield.

Largely overlooked in the clamour about Kane’s injury is another blow that could be just as significant to the club’s hopes of continuing to fight on four fronts over the next month.

Moussa Sissoko pulled up with a groin problem in the first half against United and, although the Frenchman continued to be assessed by the club today, the initial prognosis suggests he will miss around four weeks. As remarkable as it would have seemed in early November, Sissoko’s absence could be more of a problem to the club than Kane’s, after the 29-year-old’s transformation from laughing stock to leading man over the past few months.

Photo: AP
AP

Sissoko has made himself an indispensable part of Pochettino’s team since Mousa Dembele’s injury in early November, starting 10 of the past 11 matches, and with the Belgium midfielder close to finalising a move to China and Victor Wanyama still in rehab for a long-term knee injury, his absence leaves Spurs short in the engine room.

The fact that Kane, whose passing has improved immeasurably, has spent as much time in midfield as up front this season has further weakened the centre of the pitch.

Harry Winks and the returning Eric Dier, who has not played in over a month after surgery to remove his appendix, are currently the club’s only fit, senior midfielders — a far from ideal situation, particularly considering Winks’s own injury history.

Like Kane, the England playmaker has suffered four separate ankle injuries in the past few years and the latest, in March 2017, ruled him out for five months and required surgery, which has left him playing through the pain barrier.

Although Winks has proven his fitness, Spurs must be careful with the 22-year-old, who has started 10 games since December 5. Beyond Winks and Dier, Spurs’s only natural midfield player is 18-year-old Oliver Skipp, who, while hugely promising, showed enough in the 7-0 win over Tranmere to suggest it would be a risk to rely on him in the biggest games.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Ben Stansall
AFP/Getty Images/Ben Stansall

Pochettino is, therefore, likely to use Dele Alli or Christian Eriksen in a deeper role while Sissoko is absent, and another solution could see the manager switch back to a three-at-the-back system, pushing his full-backs higher up the pitch to support his scant midfield resources.

The most obvious solution, of course, remains entering the transfer market, and Pochettino is scheduled to meet Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, on his return from Barcelona to assess the situation. Signing a short-term replacement for Kane is not part of the club’s thinking, but Pochettino has long wanted a new midfielder and Sissoko’s injury could finally force Levy to act, even if the chairman wants to try to offload deadwood like Janssen and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou before entering the market.

Given Spurs are approaching a year without a signing, Levy may advise Pochettino to get creative with his squad instead.

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