Tottenham Hotspur are suffering from an unprecedented injury crisis this season and the club’s supporters want answers.
Ange Postecoglou will be without eight big-name players for their clash with Newcastle United on Saturday all due to injuries. Destiny Udogie was the latest player to succumb to an injury and he is set to miss six to ten weeks.
But why are the Lilywhites picking up so many injuries this season? Well, Postecoglou may have already hinted at why when he was in charge of Celtic.
What is Tottenham’s current list of injuries?
One of the common themes you will notice from Tottenham’s list of injuries is hamstring issues. Spurs have had six players sidelined who have either had or are currently struggling with an issue in this area.
Udogie, Heung-min Son, Ben Davies, Wilson Odobert, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero have all had hamstring injuries at some point. Now, this can often be associated with fatigue and for Tottenham that could certainly be the case given the intensity of Ange Ball, the lack of squad depth and the number of games they have played.
It’s worth noting before pointing fingers that their injury list has been made to look a lot worse through a combination of misfortune, players with poor injury histories, suspensions and illness. For example, Van de Ven and Richarlison are two players who have had clear injury issues in the past and Guglielmo Vicario is just unlucky having suffered an impact injury.
What Postecoglou said at Celtic when he had similar injury issues
Now, this will sound very familiar to Tottenham fans. In December 2021, Postecoglou admitted that Celtic were suffering many injuries due to the busy fixture schedule but also because of his high-intensity demands on the players.
When asked whether he would taper his high-intensity methods during the injury crisis, Postecoglou told the media: “No, it’s not possible. It’s a by-product of the team we want to be and it’s part of the process. I’ve been through it a number of times with teams I’ve taken over and the initial process is always difficult.
“Games are coming thick and fast, but that’s the level we want to be at. We’ve still got seven games to go between now and the break, so we have to make sure we keep presenting ourselves well and get some game time to the guys who played well tonight.
“It’s not ideal but the guys have coped with it in the past. As you saw tonight, we have a good level of intensity and energy and we are just going to keep doing that in every game we play.”
Ange Ball is clearly very intense and becomes even harder to sustain when you have a limited number of players available and matches every three days or so. The Australian is clearly not going to back down, so Spurs either need to back him and bolster his squad or consider whether the way he plays is sustainable for their future.