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Liverpool face Tottenham in the Carabao Cup semi-finals next week and the home side have mounting injury issues.
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Tottenham Hotspur have suffered their latest injury blow ahead of next week’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool.
The Reds make the trip to North London less than a month since the enthralling 6-3 win over Ange Postecoglou’s side in the Premier League. Liverpool are six points clear at the top of the table - some 21 points above Tottenham.
Spurs have had an injury crisis of late, with key centre-back duo Micky van de Van and Cristian Romero absent with respective hamstring issues, along with the versatile defender Ben Davies and No.1 goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
And in their 2-2 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Destiny Udogie was forced out. The left-back sustained a hamstring problem of his own. Tottenham boss Postecoglou said: “I think it's a hamstring. Again, like I said, we've been relying on a core group of players because we just haven't had the ability to rotate, so at some point, it was going to catch up with us. Unfortunately, it caught up with Destiny.”
According to Football.London it is expected that Udogie will be sidelined ‘until late February at the earliest as he faces up to eight weeks out’. That means that the Italy international will be unavailable for Tottenham’s clash against Liverpool on Wednesday 8 January. In addition, Richarlison and Wilson Odobert (both hamstring) will remain absent.
Spurs will also be without James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr for the last-four encounter. The pair have picked up two yellow cards in the competition so far and are therefore suspended for the first leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Despite their troubles, Postecoglou is remaining optimistic that Tottenham can turn around their faltering form. Spurs are 11 points off the Champions League places, with qualification the aim at the start of the season.
The Aussie said: “I just feel that at some point we'll get a relatively healthy squad and when we do that we'll be able to perform at a high level consistently and we've already shown this year we can beat anyone. There's a chance there you can go on a run. But at the moment that's secondary to the first bit, we have to try to get some support for the players - both mentally and physically and in terms of numbers to give them the opportunity to play at their best.”
Liverpool, meanwhile, may be without three defenders against Tottenham. Ibrahima Konate (knee) and Conor Bradley (hamstring) have been unavailable for the past month. In addition, Joe Gomez sustained a hamstring issue of his own in the 5-0 thrashing of West Ham United in the Reds’ final game of 2024.
Head coach Arne Slot said: “You saw today an injury of Joe Gomez. If a player says he wants to stop, he has to be changed. In a sprint, then we all know it’s a hamstring and we all know it’s going take a while before he is back. I don’t know how long but he will be out for quite a bit. These situations can happen in a season.”