More worrying for Spurs fans than the result of today’s Barclays Asia Trophy game with Sunderland was the sight of Jan Vertonghen being stretchered off, just six minutes into his second half appearance.
The pitch in Hong Kong was barely playable after torrential rain delayed the start by thirty minutes and Jan’s injury was caused after he slipped on the troublesome surface.
The Belgian left the field on a stretcher but didn’t seem to be in too much distress and Head Coach Andre Villas-Boas fears ankle ligament damage but hopes that the player will return in time for our Premiership opener with Crystal Palace.
“He might have sprained the ligaments in his left ankle,” Andre said. “We need to have an MRI to see the full extent.
“But there is some range of movement in the ankle so we hope that it won’t be that long. We hope he will be back for the first game of the season.”
Andre also gave his views on the state of the surface.
“I was concerned but what can you do? The pitch is what it is, it’s always like that at this tournament. The conditions are poor, they’re always like that.
“You can’t change the conditions. They are extremely poor.”
AVB famously declared Sandro to be fine after his season ending injury against QPR but Vertonghen’s problem certainly doesn’t seem to be as serious. Whether the Belgian will be ready for Palace on August 18th however remains to be seen.
More worrying then this is the fact that AVB is not saying anything about Bale. All these weeks worrying about a striker and now I’d settle for this window to be closed just to stop the stress of Gazza. Jan will be back and if not for Palace, we’ve got cover… If we lose Bale it’s an incalculable setback. If we think its hard to attract top tier talent now, just wait until Real/ Man U close this deal. What can we do… Cross the fingers and hope we don’t make the same mistake Liverpool made a couple if years ago. Cash in the bank is worth NOTHING without purchasing power.
COYS
sell bale buy soldado, lamella from roma Rodrigo from benfica and a left back
There’s a huge camp that say take the money. You might be right. I think you back the guy with a monster contract, give him a striker and take a crack at the title ourselves. Either way COYS!