Pochettino: Players are pushed to the limit
Mauricio Pochettino accepts he is pushing his Tottenham squad to the limit as he counts of the cost of their World Cup exploits.
Out of the 11 Spurs players that went to Russia in the summer, only Harry Kane, Toby Alderweireld and Son Heung-min have not spent time out injured this season with muscle injuries.
Davinson Sanchez and Kieran Trippier were the latest stars to head for the treatment room before the recent international break and neither is expected back until next month.
With eight of those players being at the tournament for its entirety, they did not return to Tottenham until five days before the Premier League season.
And Pochettino, whose Tottenham side play Chelsea tonight, would prefer his young squad to be going out and enjoying their lives in the summer rather than playing football for 12 months.
“Today we’re in a period where the technology and the knowledge of sports science and the medical staff are fantastic - they can provide the best help,” he said.
“But we’re pushing players to the limit. The line between getting injured or not is so thin.
“We don’t realise that we’re playing with the health of the players. They’re human. It’s so tough. They are young. They need to enjoy life, too.
“They need to spend energy with families, kids, girlfriends. And the guys that are not with girlfriends need to go to try to find one.
“It’s normal. Come on, they are young. We need to be careful but I know the business is crazy today and it’s not easy to understand but it is like this.”