Tottenham injury crisis deepens as Pape Sarr ruled out of Hoffenheim trip | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou without whole host of key players for trip to Germany

Tottenham's injury crisis has deepened with a minor problem for Pape Sarr which will keep the Senegalese out of the Europa League game against Hoffenheim, leaving head coach Ange Postecoglou without no fewer than 14 players in Germany.

Postecoglou said Sarr sustained "a knock" in the defeat to Everton and will miss Thursday's game, though both he and Yves Bissouma could be back for Sunday's league game at home to Leicester City.

“[Sarr] got a slight knock from the weekend so he's out,” Postecoglou told reporters in Germany. “Then we get Bentancur back. I think he's the only one.

“[Sarr] tried to train [on Wednesday] but he was still a bit sore from the weekend. We're hoping it won't be anything that keeps him out for too long. A chance for him at the weekend but the turnaround was too quick.”

Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Destiny Udogie, Timo Werner, Wilson Odobert, Brennan Johnson and Dominic Solanke are also unavailable through injury, while Antonio Kinsky, Djed Spence, Sergio Reguilon and Min-hyeok Yang are not registered in the Europa League.

Romero, who has played just 15 minutes since November 10, is back in training following a quad injury but not fit enough to face the Bundesliga side and has not travelled.

A number of academy players have made the trip to Hoffenheim but Postecoglou says he is reluctant to throw them in at the deep end and will instead rely on his dwindling pool of seniors again.

“We’ve probably got 13 first team players who’ve travelled,” the Australian said.

“At the weekend we’re hoping Pape on a quick turnaround, and potentially Biss but everything else is further down track.

“We don’t have many options, apart from throwing untried youngsters in there but again I don’t want to do that to them.

“We’ll try to focus on next task, that’s tomorrow night, get through that and assess it from there.”