Tottenham have been handed yet another injury headache ahead of their Europa Leage final showdown with Manchester United after Pape Matar Sarr was forced off injured against Aston Villa.
Spurs were in action against Aston Villa on Friday night with Unai Emery’s side sealing a 2-0 win to keep their hopes of Champions League qualification alive on the same night Chelsea beat Manchester United.
Ange Postecoglou made a number of changes with next week’s trip to Bilbao in mind with Yves Bissouma, Brennan Johnson, Pedro Porro and Dominic Solanke among those rested.
Centre-halves Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven were left out of the squad altogether.
Sarr was among those to start but was replaced after 53 minutes, gingerly walking straight down the tunnel at Villa Park.
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The 22-year-old midfielder will now face a race to recover in time for Wednesday’s final – although Postecoglou did offer hope post-match by suggesting the change was a precautionary one.
‘Pape felt something in his back, so we took him off as a bit of a precaution,’ Postecoglou said.
‘I don’t think it’s anything too significant, speaking to him afterwards but he just felt something in his back.’
Postecoglou added: ‘I think Mikey [Moore, who went down in the second half] was okay. It was fatigue as much as anything else. He hasn’t played that sort of amount of minutes before.’
Spurs are already without three key midfield options in James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall and Dejan Kulusevski – with Tottenham confirming the latter has undergone knee surgery this week.
Heung-Min Son meanwhile was back in the starting line-up for the first time since the first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt in April having recovered from a foot injury.
The South Korean also appeared off the bench against Crystal Palace last weekend with Postecoglou confident he will be ‘good shape’ for next week’s final.
‘It’s good to have him back and involved,’ the Tottenham manager said.
‘I’m sure he feels better for that run out, as well, having a decent hit out. Hopefully, that puts in him good shape for the final.’