Spurs injury crisis persists ahead of ‘exciting’ Liverpool semi-final

The Football Faithful

·07 de janeiro de 2025

Spurs injury crisis persists ahead of ‘exciting’ Liverpool semi-final

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou could be without 11 of his first-team players for the visit of Liverpool as the club’s injury crisis shows few signs of easing up.

Tottenham Hotspur host the Reds in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday night, with kickoff slated for 8pm.

Vídeos OneFootball

Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie, Ben Davies, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Wilson Odobert remain on the treatment table, while Radu Dragusin and Fraser Forster are sidelined by illness.

Rodrigo Bentancur returns from his seven-game ban, but James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr are suspended after receiving their second bookings of the competition in the quarter-final win over Manchester United. Mikey Moore could make the bench following a bout of illness.

Spurs injury crisis persists ahead of Liverpool semi-final

“I think net-wise we are still down [on players],” Postecoglou said in his pre-match press conference. “We’ll get Bentancur back but we lose Maddison and Pape Sarr so we are a couple of numbers down there.

“And in terms of the injuries, no-one is back. Mikey potentially could be available to be on the bench.

“Everyone else from the weekend certainly feels better. Radu has recovered and Archie [Gray] is better, they were the kind of main ones. Deki [Dejan Kulusevski] was a bit under the weather but he’s good, so pretty much as it was on the weekend, plus Bentancur and minus the other two. Fraser is back in training.”

Postecoglou confirmed that Richarlison has resumed training after recovering from a thigh injury, but the Brazilian will miss the Liverpool game as he won’t return to action for a fortnight.

“The whole plan with him, with what has happened this year, was to give him two full solid weeks of training,” he said. “His second week will be next week and if he gets through that he will be fine.”

Spurs enter the first leg without a win in the four games since beating United, including a 6-3 defeat at home to Liverpool, who sit atop the Premier League table.

“Our league results have been poor, there is no hiding from that,” Postecoglou admitted. “It is a separate competition tomorrow night.

“We have done well to get to the semi-final stage. We’ve beaten some Manchester clubs to do that. It hasn’t been an easy road to the semi-finals.

“We’ve got an opponent that has been the standout performers in all competitions. So it is a great test for us, but it is a semi-final first leg and should be exciting. I am looking forward to it.”