Toby Alderweireld won’t travel to Juventus with the Tottenham squad, according to multiple reports.
The Belgian returned from a long injury lay-off and played 90 minutes against Newport County in the FA Cup last week.
He was left out of the squad altogether against Arsenal before the Telegraph broke the news that he won’t be involved against Juventus either.
Mauricio Pochettino is believed to be keen for Alderweireld to work on his fitness before he can feature in important games.
The Telegraph‘s report suggests this could have an effect on the defender’s contract talks, but that seems very speculative to me.
Danny Rose and Erik Lamela both took time to return to “match fitness” despite returning to full training after recent injuries.
Alderweireld is probably in the same boat, although it is surprising he played the full Newport match.
Perhaps fitness tests after the game revealed the 28-year-old is still not ready to play in high-intensity games.
The return to playing too early is one of the greatest causes of further injury. Hamstrings are particularly prone once they have gone: Michael Owen was never the same player after he pulled his hamstring, good but not what he could have been. Great players want to play, and great players give everything every game. Putting Toby in before he has truly recovered could endanger the rest of his career as the temptation for a great player such as he is, is to try too hard and put pressure on a weakened hamstring before it is fully match ready. There is no justification in jeopardising a players career for the sake of a “vital” game; no game is worth a players future, no matter how much they want to get into the action. He will be disappointed, naturally, but when he is lifting trophies in years ahead, will realise what a good decision it was by the manager not to put him in too early. 90 minutes against Newport County is really not the same as the NLD or the Bianconeri.
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