Tottenham Hotspur will battle Leeds United on Monday Night Football in the Premier League with their survival in the English top flight very much still on the line. Spurs need to win every game possible, as they only just crawled out of the bottom three relegation places with a huge 2-1 win over now Europa League finalists Aston Villa.
Leeds are pulling safely away from the relegation places themselves, and they are not going to be easy opponents for Tottenham. But as manager Roberto De Zerbi has asserted, Spurs should be the favorites in this game despite ranking lower in the table, as they have the squad quality that is superior - and under De Zerbi, they have increasingly been getting better, too.
Tottenham have had the worst luck with injuries this season, and they have suffered even more blows recently to their attack, too. Xavi Simons joined Wilson Odobert with a torn ACL, and Dominic Solanke is also going to be out against Leeds this Monday night with a recent hamstring injury.
Tottenham get good news at Leeds expense
However, Tottenham Hotspur are actually going to be the ones getting some positive news on the injury front in the days leading up to the matchup with Leeds United. The injury news is not to their own, but rather positive news at the expense of their opponents.
According to reporting from Isaac Johnson of The Mirror and Leeds Live from the Eddie Riemer press conference before the game, Leeds star forward and game changer Noah Okafor is going to miss the next two games. He has been ruled out against Tottenham.
Okafor's absence is incredible news for Spurs. He has been in tremendous form this season and has an AC Milan pedigree with the explosivness to blow by defenses and the end product to score goals from nothing.
He isn't the only potentially major absence for Leeds next week either. Another important Leeds player is also a doubt for the match agains the Lilywhites, as Pascal Struijk, the 26 year old star center back, may also miss Monday's match with an injury.
Struijk is not as decisive as Okafor, but he's arguably been even better and more important to the Peacocks cause this season. The Dutchman has been tremendous on the ball in the build up phases and no nonsense defensively. He has not been ruled out yet, but Struijk doesn't seem to be expected to play. That would be a huge miss for Leeds.
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