Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou is now set to be without a member of his squad for the rest of this season after a "devastating" recent injury.
Spurs battling Aston Villa for Champions League place
Spurs are currently tussling with Unai Emery's Aston Villa for fourth and a spot in next season's Champions League group stage pot.
Club preparing to lose £100m star as Tottenham push for his signing
Spurs are allegedly making a “concerted” effort to bring him in.
ByEmilio GalantiniMar 7, 2024
The importance of European football for Tottenham cannot be underestimated, not just from a playing perspective. The riches that come with it could significantly help to bolster Postecoglou's ranks in the transfer market as well, whilst helping the north Londoners to remain in the boundaries of FFP.
Postecoglou has proved a popular figure at Spurs since his arrival from Celtic last summer, having re-introduced a brand of entertaining, fan-engaging football, but the Australian's overall mark will be strongly determined by their finish to the campaign.
Aston Villa (away)
March 10th
Fulham (away)
March 16th
Luton Town (home)
March 30th
West Ham (away)
April 2nd
Nottingham Forest (home)
April 8th
The Lilywhites have done well coping with absences to key players at points this term. Both Micky van de Ven and James Maddison suffered long-term injuries which kept them out for large parts of the mid-season, while Cristian Romero has been unavailable multiple times over 23/24.
Postecoglou was also without Son Heung-min, Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr during their brief trips to AFCON and the Asia Cup, with summer signing Manor Solomon unable to contribute effectively due to his large spells on the treatment table.
In fact, since the start of this season, Van de Ven, Maddison, Solomon, Ivan Perisic, Romero, Richarlison, Brennan Johnson, Giovani Lo Celso, Ashley Phillips, Ryan Sessegnon and Rodrigo Bentancur have all spent a month or more on the sidelines (Dan Kilpatrick).
If Spurs are to beat Villa to fourth, they'll need a near-fully fit squad, but one player who's set to miss the rest of the run-in is the ever-unlucky Sessegnon.
The Englishman has been unable to prove his worth under Postecoglou, recently undergoing slow rehabilitation and getting time on the grass after a hamstring injury. However, in a cruel twist of fate, Sessegnon injured his other hamstring in a Spurs Under-21s match last month.
“33 minutes was when he went down. You looked at him and he stayed down with his hands on his head, he was absolutely gutted," said football.london journalist Alasdair Gold after the news.
"The physios worked on him for five minutes, and he couldn’t even put much weight on it. It was just rubbish. From what I understand it is a hamstring problem, but this time it’s on the other side."
Ryan Sessegnon set to miss rest of the season at Tottenham
Sharing an update, Football Insider and journalist Wayne Veysey report that Sessegnon is out of action for the rest of the season after his "devastating" new Tottenham injury.
The defender underwent surgery late last month and is now ruled out for the remainder of the campaign, in what can only be described as an extremely unfortunate situation and one of real frustration for Sessegnon. It remains to be seen if the 23-year-old features in Postecoglou's long-term plans.
