Post-World Cup injuries one question facing Tottenham Hotspur

As the post-World Cup era begins and league play resumes, European clubs, including Tottenham Hotspur, face difficult injury questions.

As the Premier League is set to resume, players returning with injuries are one of the big questions facing Tottenham Hotspur. We know that Spurs will face Brentford on Boxing Day, and there are some injury questions to answer about the team and players following the World Cup.

Injuries impacting possibilities for Tottenham Hotspur

With as many players participating in the World Cup as Tottenham had, it was inevitable that a couple of them would get injured. Ultimately, three players picked up knocks at the competition, leaving them in different states of readiness.

Ben Davies injured his oblique and came off early in Wales’s loss to England. However, the injury occurred in early December, and Davies was back in action in the friendly against Nice. Whether or not Davies starts is a different question, but he is undoubtedly available to face the Bees, which is not the same story for either Bentancur or Richarlison.

Rodrigo Bentancur picked up a knock at the end of Uruguay’s group stage play and will be out until the new year. Bentancur was already slated to miss the game due to a yellow card suspension, so we hope he is available by the new year when Spurs face Villa.

Richarlison is probably the most significant of the injuries for several reasons.

First, he picked up his injury much later than either Davies or Bentancur, who picked up their knocks during the group stage. Richarlison was injured in the quarterfinal loss to Croatia; thus, he has had significantly less time to heal.

Second, it does sound like his injury is significant, based on what Antonio Conte had to say in his pre-match press conference, with RIcharlison likely out about a month. Finally, the fact that Harry Kane has limited availability following the Cup and Richarlison is the primary backup leaves Spurs a bit short.

Harvey White has been solid in two friendlies; starting a Premier League London derby is different. And while Heung-min Son played against Nice, he too is recovering from the World Cup and a fractured orbital socket.

In the big scheme of things, even Richarlison’s month out is not nearly as bad an injury as it could have been, and some other teams and players suffered. While Tottenham needs all their stars for a busy time to come, the injuries at the Cup were not terrible for Spurs; the big question now is how the players and team will recover.