Jose Mourinho: Tottenham better equipped to cope with injury crisis

Jose Mourinho fears Tottenham may suffer an accumulation of injuries like last season but says they could cope.

Mourinho expects Toby Alderweireld to be sidelined for up to a month with a groin injury sustained against Manchester City on Saturday, leaving the Spurs manager short of centre-backs for Thursday night’s Europa League visit of Bulgarian side Ludogorets.

Joe Rodon is ineligible and Mourinho regards Japhet Tanganga as a full-back, so Eric Dier may have to start tonight and against Chelsea on Sunday.

“Sometimes we have [injury] problems and when we have problems, there’s an accumulation,” said Mourinho.

“It happened to us last season and it was without Covid. When you start having the problem with Harry Kane, Sonny was playing every match. Then we have a problem with Sonny, and Lucas [Moura] was playing every game with [Steven] Bergwijn. Then Begwijn had a problem."

Liverpool have suffered similar problems at the back this season, losing Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez in succession.

"Of course Liverpool is a big club with a squad full of top players," Mourinho added. "Some are injured, some are recovering. When another one gets injured, another one comes back. The big clubs can normally cope with the situation."

Mourinho will also be without Erik Lamela (achilles) while Matt Doherty is available but unlikely to start after contracting coronavirus on international duty. As well as Rodon, Paulo Gazzaniga, Danny Rose and Gedson Fernandes are ineligible.

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