Spurs breezed through their opening Europa League clash with Tromso but it looked as if the victory may have come at a price. Mousa Dembele and Danny Rose limped out of the game to be substituted by Christian Eriksen and Jan Vertonghen while Younes Kaboul had to leave the field late on for the side to finish with ten men.
However, Head Coach Andre Villas-Boas has attempted to allay fears of a growing injury list which already includes Etienne Capoue, Aaron Lennon and Nacer Chadli.
“Dembele should be okay,” AVB told ESPN. “He felt a lot of pain when he was brought down, but now he’s steady. Younes felt muscle tightness in his adductor and we decided to take him off. He was struggling but he didn’t rupture anything.
“We have to be a little bit more careful with Danny Rose. We hope it’s not serious. We have to give him one night to see the reaction of his ankle. He is in doubt for Sunday but he should be okay.”
Andre does have previous when it comes to playing down injuries – he did something similar with Sandro after the QPR game last season but we remain hopeful that Dembele at least will be available for Cardiff this Sunday.
So Naughton at LB then?
I hope we don’t get caught cold, Cardiff will start hard and fast.
Expect Paulinho and hopefully Sandro to completely dominate the middle. Cardiff play pretty narrow so would be best to have Townsend very wide.
Defoe to start?
Not sure what team AVB will play against Cardiff. He is generally very precautions about players coming back from injury and he gave both Sandro and Kaboul 90mins last night.
Unlike the Harry days, it is really tough to call what team he will pick.
Defoe to start? This is an away prem game and not europa. Don’t be fooled by last night’s game. Defoe is still a limited footballer. I’d pick Bobby Solider with one leg over Defoe everytime.
Depends on Kaboul. if he is fit, then play Vert at left back and Kaboul and Dawson in the middle.