Tottenham Hotspur hasn’t had the greatest luck when it comes to its new players staying healthy. First there was the foot injury to record signing Dominic Solanke in Tottenham’s week 1 draw at Leicester City that kept him out of the following match and slowed his adaptation to Tottenham’s squad. Now, new dribbly winger Wilson Odobert could be out for an extended period after picking up what looked like a mild hamstring injury in Spurs’ last-gasp League Cup win over Coventry City on Wednesday night.
It’s early days and we don’t know the full extent of Odobert’s injury or how long it might take him to recover, but Ange Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference that it looks like the injury could be “fairly significant.” Timo Werner also picked up an injury that caused his substitution, and his status is also currently unknown. Eep.
“Hard to say, Wilson looked fairly significant, so we’ll just wait and see. Timo, again not really sure if it was just fatigue but yeah, a bit unfortunate for both of those. Obviously, both play in a similar position as well. We’re hoping it’s nothing too significant.”
That obviously has implications for Tottenham’s next stretch of matches, which is pretty brutal — Tottenham host Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday before welcoming Qarabag to London in the first Europa League match of the campaign, and with upcoming matches at Manchester United and Ferencvaros in Hungary. Both Odobert and Werner were expected to play key roles, either as starters or rotation options, for Spurs during this stretch, and if either or both are out for any extended length of time then it will put a real strain on the remaining Tottenham attackers.
I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but Odobert was able to walk off the pitch under his own power. I hope that means it’s a relatively minor hamstring injury as far as injuries go — perhaps a mild strain or a grade 1 tear. That’s the hope. But Ange’s “fairly significant” comment could mean that the physios have a different opinion, and that could suck. Nothing to do but wait and see what comes out in the next day or so.
The good news is that Destiny Udogie’s halftime substitution was NOT injury related and was instead a planned sub for Djed Spence. Ange confirmed that he wanted to give Udogie some additional minutes to aid his transition back to full fitness, but Spence was always going to play in the second half.
“Yeah, it was always the plan for [Udogie] to play 45 tonight. He missed a lot of pre-season so it is a balancing act with him to get us some game time because he is not 100 per cent fit. Tonight it was always the plan to play him 45 and play Djed 45.
“…[With] Djed, and as you said with Brennan, you know I spoke about it yesterday that he comes in, works hard at his game and when you’re an attacking player, you’re always kind of getting measured against certain things. I said, if he can get through this period and just be positive and and play like he can, he can be a significant contributor to us and credit to him. He got a good goal tonight.”
The injuries to Odobert almost certainly means Brennan Johnson will start on the right again against Brentford. Hopefully his late match winner against Coventry in the League Cup is a galvanizing moment for him and he can kick on and become the important player that Ange Postecoglou and Spurs fans believe he can be in this next stretch of games.
