Tottenham’s Ben Davies to miss Champions League clash with Real Madrid

Earlier today we discovered that injured Tottenham Hotspur players Danny Rose and Mousa Dembele were both in the squad that will play against Real Madrid in the Champions League tomorrow. Now we’ve gotten an official update from the club on who will NOT feature. And unfortunately that list includes Ben Davies, who continues to recover from the illness that kept him out of the Bournemouth match. Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, who picked up a concussion against the Cherries, and Victor Wanyama were also left home.

The club hasn’t said what illness Ben Davies has, but this sounds an awful lot like the flu. And not the 24-hour stomach bug variety, but the ACTUAL flu, which I know from experience can lay healthy people out for more than 72 hours. That’s a bummer for Ben, but let’s face it — he probably needs the rest anyway.

But there’s more: Mauricio confirmed via a video tweet from the plane that Danny Rose is not only part of the traveling squad — he’ll probably start the match on the bench and could be a late impact substitute.

What does that mean for Spurs’ starting lineup? Considering all of Serge Aurier, Kieran Trippier, and Kyle Walker-Peters are on the plane to Spain (which flies mainly over plains), my best guess is that Aurier starts on the right, and Trippier on the left. We’ve seen that a couple of times and Trips hasn’t been great in that role, but knowing there’s a (semi) fit Rose on the bench might ameliorate that a bit.

Poch also noted that Dele Alli did travel with the team to Madrid, though he obviously can’t play as he’s serving out the final match of his three-game suspension from European competition. Hopefully he can will Spurs to a surprise results at the Bernabeu tomorrow night.