TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR BOSS Ange Postecoglou said he’d been dealt another injury setback when confirming Cristian Romero will miss the next four to five weeks with a hamstring strain.
Brighton, Spurs’ opponents tomorrow, are also facing an injury crisis, with up to 10 players unavailable for the clash on the south coast of England.
The 25-year-old Argentina centre-back’s absence is all the more galling for Spurs as Romero only returned from a three-match suspension at the beginning of December.
Romero suffered the injury during last weekend’s 2-1 victory against Everton with Postecoglou, speaking ahead of Thursday’s match at Brighton, saying: “Not so great with Romero.
“He had a scan the other day and has got a hamstring strain. We are looking at probably four or five weeks for him.
“Disappointing to lose him, for sure. We obviously missed him with the suspension and now we’ve just got him back and he steadied things up.
“Now he will be missing again for quite a chunk of time.”
Romero’s fellow central defender Micky van de Ven remains sidelined with a hamstring injury of his own sustained during a 4-1 loss to Chelsea in November.
Van de Ven suggested last week he could be back training in a fortnight, with a cautious Postecoglou hinting the 14 January trip to Manchester United as a comeback date for the player.
“He is getting closer,” Postecoglou said. “We will see him some time in January. I don’t think Burnley but Man United on the 14th potentially.
“I don’t look at comeback dates until I see them training with us and he hasn’t been part of the group.
“He is not due to be part of the group this week so we’ll see how he is going at the end of this week. Once they start training with the group, that’s when we start thinking about if they are available.
“He is at the tail end of it, for sure and at some point, middle of January he could be available but how we use him after such a long absence will be depending on where he is at.”
Spurs could leapfrog Aston Villa into third place in the Premier League with victory at Brighton.
Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi, meanwhile, expects to be without wingers Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adingra for between four to six weeks in the latest blows to his injury-hit squad.
Mitoma suffered an ankle problem during last week’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, with Adingra damaging his hamstring at Selhurst Park.
The pair are among up to 10 Seagulls players set to miss Thursday’s match at home to Tottenham.
“Tomorrow we have more or less 10 injured players, maybe eight but (the other) two players can’t start the game,” Brighton boss De Zerbi told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
“Mitoma is one of them. We lost Kaoru for around six weeks — four, five, six weeks. Adingra, I think he needs four, five weeks (recovery). Tomorrow, no Mitoma, no Adingra.”
Japan international Mitoma is now a doubt for the Asian Cup, which begins on 12 January, while Ivory Coast forward Adingra’s involvement in the Africa Cup of Nations, which starts the following day, uncertain.
Brighton will also be without Ansu Fati, Tariq Lamptey, Adam Webster, Solly March, Julio Enciso and Joel Veltman for the visit of Spurs, while midfielder Adam Lallana may only be fit for an appearance off the bench.
