Mauricio Pochettino admits he is worried about the fitness of Victor Wanyama and Mousa Dembele and has no indication when the key midfield pair might return.
Wanyama will see a specialist in the coming days after failing to make the expected progress in his recovery from a knee injury, while Dembele is struggling with a hip problem – something that has troubled him at other stages of his career. The pair have made just seven starts between them for Tottenham this term.
Spurs boss Pochettino said: “We are concerned about Wanyama’s situation. We must wait for when he sees the specialist and then we’ll see what happens.
“But of course after some time without him involved in the training sessions and with the team, we are concerned. But now we need to wait next week to have a more clear idea of what’s going on.
On Dembele, Pochettino’s assistant Jesus Perez added: “He had an incident in one of the training sessions [before the Real Madrid game], and complained about one of his hips and he’s not able to cope with the intensity of the training.
“It’s as simple as that. It’s been three or four days since the incident and he can’t cope with the intensity of the training.”
There was better news, however, about Erik Lamela, who has not played since October 25 last year due to a hip injury, but could return on Wednesday against West Ham in the Carabao Cup – exactly 12 months after his last game, against Liverpool at Anfield.
Pochettino added: “I hope maybe he can be on the bench against West Ham, but it’s not sure. It’s about waiting but he’s been doing very well in the last few weeks, with the team in training. We only need to wait for that click where he feels ‘yes, I feel I can cope with the competition’.”
