Tottenham: Pochettino to Wait on Diagnosing Alderweireld’s Injury
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has chosen to wait up to two days, before determining the severity of Toby Alderweireld’s injury.
In the 60th minute against West Bromwich Albion, Tottenham would lose Toby Alderweireld on a freak accident involving fellow Belgian center-back Jan Vertonghen.
Vertonghen jumped into the air to clear a West Brom cross with his head but upon landing the 29-year-old would inadvertently land on Alderweireld’s right ankle.
Alderweireld immediately signaled to the bench and the game was momentarily stopped to get the Belgian defender off the pitch on a stretcher. Without being able to put any pressure on his right ankle, based on Toby Alderweireld’s reaction, this could be a long-term injury.
Although Harry Kane’s own ankle injury wasn’t as bad as initially feared, it’s unlikely that Alderweireld will expect the same result when Mauricio Pochettino finally asses the 27-year-old.
Speaking to Tottenham’s official website following his side’s 1-1 draw, Pochettino only said that trying to assess the injury after the match ended would be difficult.
Therefore the Argentine manager would wait a day or two before consulting with team doctors.
“It’s difficult to assess now because we need to wait 24-48 hours,” Mauricio Pochettino said. “He took a big knock to his leg and now we need to wait to assess and to be clear in the diagnosis.”
This is somewhat similar to Kane’s situation, except there was swelling involved that took a while to dissipate. In essence, there is nothing to report regarding Toby Alderweireld’s injury.
Instead, this is a good time to take a look at the center-back situation a bit more in-depth.
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Because it’s unknown how long Alderweireld will be sidelined for, Jan Vertonghen’s partner for the time being should follow this order: Eric Dier > Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kevin Wimmer.
With Victor Wanyama being Pochettino’s preferred defensive midfielder based on form, it means that Dier isn’t able to start at the heart of midfield anymore. His minutes are essentially reduced and he has occupied a spot on bench unless Wanyama is injured or needs rest.
Since Alderweireld picked up a knock instead, and Eric Dier was originally brought into Tottenham’s set-up as a center-back, putting the two together makes this a sensible move to make.
Plus, because Carter-Vickers is still 18-years-old and Wimmer has somewhat fallen out of favor this season — he is still in the team’s plans for the future — giving both players a start with the expectations that Spurs have this year would be a huge risk Mauricio Pochettino would not want to take.
Not with how their season has gone at the moment, sitting in third place and trailing Manchester City and Arsenal by one point after eight Premier League matches.
Having Eric Dier start alongside Jan Vertonghen is a band-aid of an option until Toby Alderweireld returns. That much is clear. At the same time it gives the 22-year-old minutes that he missed since suffering a hamstring strain against Sunderland.
Next: Tottenham's Pochettino Happy with Performance, Not with Result
Spurs have managed to extremely well this year when players miss time due to injuries and no doubt Pochettino has a plan in place to keep Tottenham from slipping with a vital defender now on the shelf for X amount of days.
The hope is that Alderweireld’s injury isn’t major. But even if it was, or it’s minor, the plan moving forward would likely see Eric Dier shuffle back into the starting XI.
Unless of course Mauricio Pochettino is confident that Cameron Carter-Vickers is ready to step up and assume a large responsibility to keep Spurs afloat given his young age and inexperience.