Tottenham Hotspur will be without the services of Rodrigo Bentancur, Giovanni Lo Celso, and Bryan Gil ahead of the north London derby against Arsenal, manager Ange Postecoglou has confirmed, according to Football.London.
The trio are yet to resume full training with their teammates after suffering various degrees of injuries. Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Postecoglou revealed that Bentancur, Lo Celso, and Gil will slowly be involved in training sessions next week.
Elsewhere, the former Celtic manager claimed that he is disappointed with the knee injury suffered by Ivan Perisic which is expected to rule him out for the rest of the season.
Perisic picked up the injury during non-contact training and will undergo surgery on his right knee before commencing his rehabilitation in north London.
Postecoglou is quoted by Football.London as saying:
“Everyone from last week is in a good space. In terms of longer ones, two or three weeks away. Bryan Gil, Lo Celso, Bentancur, hopefully over the next few weeks they will slowly get involved in training,”
“Yeah, disappointing, first of all for Ivan more than anything else.
“Just one of those innocuous things that can happen in training. I’ve only worked with him for a while but you can see why he’s been at the top for so many years.
“It’s been really disappointing for us as well as because he’s been great for us and we don’t have a lot of experience in the group and he’s a real level head. He’s very strong-willed and I have no doubt that he’ll be back for club and country and stronger than ever.”
Good start to season
Despite injuries to some players, Tottenham have made a good start to the new season by remaining unbeaten in their first five league games. Spurs have amassed 13 points including impressive wins over Manchester United and Burnley at Turf Moor.
Postecoglou’s side are 2nd in the Premier League table alongside Arsenal, and are currently five points behind leaders and defending champions Manchester City – who won 2-0 at home against Nottingham Forest with 10 men on Saturday.
A win for Spurs over Arsenal would see them pull clear of their North London rivals and close the gap on Man City, perhaps establishing Tottenham as genuine title contenders.
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