Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou faced the press ahead of their game against Newcastle United on Saturday.
The Magpies travel to North London for the first of two trips to the capital in four days – They’ll be hoping they can leave the Tottenham Hotspur stadium with all three points and continue to close the gap on the automatic Champions League spots.
Spurs are struggling this season and are without a win in their last three Premier League games having lost to Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and drawing with Wolves.
Newcastle are searching for a fifth straight Premier League win following Monday’s victory at Old Trafford and the hope that Alexander Isak can continue his fine form.
Howe will go into the game with more confidence knowing Newcastle beat Tottenham in the reverse fixture at St James’ Park earlier in the season.
Both Eddie Howe and Postecoglou faced the press on Friday, but their injury updates couldn’t have been more different.
Ange Postecoglou confirms illness bug plagued Tottenham squad
The Spurs boss has had a hard time with injuries at the moment. He already confirmed Ben Davies would miss the game through injury.
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Now, the Australian has let wind in his pre-match press conference of a bug that has hampered his preparations for the game.
Postecoglou said: “We’ve had a bit of an illness bug around the squad, so a few were missing from training but we’ll be alright.”
Spurs will also be without eight players for Newcastle’s visit, Guglielmo Vicario, Richarlison, Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven will all be missing on Saturday.
One small silver lining for Postecoglou is that Djed Spence will return after service a one-match ban for accumulating yellow cards.
Brandon Austin is set to make his Tottenham debut against Newcastle due to Fraser Forster being unavailable (TalkSPORT).
Howe endured a similar injury crisis during a similar period last season. It was so bad that at one point, Newcastle could’ve made an injury-starting XI.
The Toon boss confirmed that Sven Botman is in contention to feature against Spurs on Saturday, while Nick Pope is “back on the grass”. Kieran Trippier came off early against Man United on Monday but Howe has confirmed the 34-year-old should be ok to face his former side.
Emil Krafth remains sidelined while he recovers from a broken collarbone. Jamaal Lascelles and Callum Wilson are also still nursing injuries.
Fabian Schar misses Saturday’s game and the midweek trip to Arsenal through suspension.