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The Belgian defender injured an adductor muscle against Manchester City.
Jose Mourinho is ready for Tottenham to be left without a defender Toby Alderweireld for the foreseeable future, but insisted there is no one to blame for the central defender’s injury in the 2-0 win over Manchester city.
The Belgian starred in Saturday’s victory that led Spurs to the top of the Premier League thanks to goals from Son Heung-min and substitute Giovani Lo Celso.
An adductor problem forced the 31-year-old to be substituted with nine minutes to go and any absence will be felt in games against Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Leicester over the next month.
“It’s bad, it’s bad. It’s a muscle injury,” Mourinho said. “The dimension, of course, we do not know, we have to wait, but it is a difficult injury, for sure.
Fantastic team performance / clean sheet / win today! Disappointed to be injured, fingers crossed is not that bad. Thanks for all the messages 🙌 #COYS pic.twitter.com/cx5LV6lnmz
– Toby Alderweireld (@AlderweireldTob) November 21, 2020
“In the Premier League we have three centers, in the Europa League we don’t have Joe Rodon, we only have two, but that’s the way it is.
“We have no one to blame. He played in the international matches that the team needed to win to qualify for the final four (of the Nations League). With us he is playing so well that we decided to play against him instead of giving him rest.” . .
“There is no one to blame, just to recover as soon as possible.”
October signing Rodon made his first appearance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when it was featured in place of Alderweireld and could now be in line for its full Chelsea debut next Sunday.
The young Welsh center-back joined Spurs after they registered his team for the Europa League, meaning Davinson Sánchez is set to play the Group J game at home against Ludogorets on Thursday.
Another alternative for Mourinho going forward is academy graduate Japhet Tanganga, who is improving his fitness after a stop-and-go campaign, while left-back Ben Davies has regularly played more central for Wales.
However, it seems likely that ex-Swansea Rodon will join Eric Dier on defense and his aim is to fill the void left by Alderweireld, who have helped Tottenham concede just once in their last four league games.
Mourinho praised the Spurs union after the disciplined display against City and special praise was reserved for Harry Kane.
The 57-year-old added: “It’s fantastic and very much represents the spirit of the team. So you look at the other guys.
“(Steven) Bergwijn was not sick, he was dying. Sonny is the same, then Lucas (Moura) comes and does the same. You go to the right back and everyone is in that mood right now.
“We are going to lose games, draw games, play badly but if we can make this spirit the DNA of the team, we are closer to doing good things.”
Central city defense Ruben Dias admitted they needed to improve before the trip to Olympiacos, but noted the rapid transition between seasons.
PEP 💬 The statistics speak for themselves, we were better in many departments but we did not score. (Spurs) defended so deep and was expecting a mistake. We found some moments but the reality is that we are struggling to score goals this season. That can happen.
🔷 #City man pic.twitter.com/IJd4lkFbiQ
– Manchester City (@ManCity) November 21, 2020
The defender, who arrived from Benfica in September, admitted that the preparation for the campaign was not ideal.
“We wanted so much to win this game. In the end it didn’t go the way we wanted,” Dias told CityTV.
“Everything has been different this season. I had a preseason because I was not here from the beginning, but the team I know had no preseason. Everything was so fast, one week and I play.
“So we play for the national team and it’s not the normal way. Obviously that’s not an excuse at all, but it spoils things.
“Now we have to focus on ourselves and take the time we have to improve.”
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