Mourinho Confirms Tottenham are Missing a Handful for LASK
By Aaron Coe
José Mourinho confirmed in his press conference that Tottenham would be without several regulars for the visit to LASK, Linz in Europa League including both strikers.
José Mourinho and Tottenham Hotspur will come with a deep yet shorthanded team to play LASK on matchday five of the Europa League. While Spurs knew Erik Lamela and Toby Alderweireld were going to be out, you can add Harry Kane, Sergio Reguilón, and Carlos Vinicius to that list. Of the group for midweek, it will be Vinicius that is most missed.
Serious Injuries for Spurs?
Just to get this out of the way, whatever the knocks are preventing Kane, Reguilón and Vinicius from playing midweek in Austria, José Mourinho was not sharing the ailments. On Kane specifically Mourinho said “I’m not going to tell you the nature of his injury” but went on to say that in his opinion he “thinks he is going to play” on Saturday against Arsenal. Given everyone’s hope is Kane was not going to appear Thursday anyway, we just hope he is okay for the weekend.
Besides Kane, Mourinho did indicate that Reguilón and Vinicius should both be fine and available on Saturday. While it is good to know these are not serious injuries and Reguilón like Kane was unlikely to play much on Thursday, it is unfortunate news for Carlos Vinicius. After scoring a brace and adding an assist last week in Europa League there is little doubt, he wanted to keep that momentum going. We had projected Vinicius in our starting XI before we knew about the injury so we know that one is wrong.
Timeline for Tottenham Return?
The two longer or more serious injuries currently at the club are with Toby Alderweireld and Erik Lamela. Lamela was shut down before the international break and has yet to feature since. We know LASK is out for Lamela and Arsenal at the weekend sounds unlikely as Mourinho said that the weekend might come too soon for Erik.
However, in some surprising news, Toby Alderweireld was pictured on the practice field before the team left for LASK on Wednesday. When asked about it, Mourinho indicated that Toby was coming along well in his recovery and that while Thursday was “not even an option” for the Belgian defender, the weekend was not completely out of the question. That said Mourinho concluded by saying that if “Toby does not play we will not cry” expressing confidence in both Joe Rodon and Davinson Sanchez to provide cover in Alderweireld’s absence.
While it sounds like injuries will have minimal impact on the weekend, it does beg the question about who is going to be the striker on Thursday for Spurs, which is a different conversation, but clearly a result of missing Kane and his cover.