Dele Alli’s recurring hamstring injury has Tottenham concerned
Tottenham will begin the season without Dele Alli after he suffered another hamstring injury and his manager, Mauricio Pochettino, admitted he is worried about the England midfielder’s health.
Alli has sustained damage to his left hamstring on four occasions in the past two years, including one strain that forced him out for 12 matches at the beginning of 2019.
He was absent again for Spurs’ final preseason friendly against Antonio Conte’s Internazionale, which Tottenham lost on penalties. While Pochettino believes the injury is minor it will be “a few more weeks” before the 23-year-old player returns to training.
“I don’t believe Dele is going to arrive for the start of the season,” Pochettino said. “I think it’s the same area [as previous injuries]. We are worried. He is still only 23 and has had many hamstring problems in the last few years. He needs to pay attention a little bit about what is going on in his body but we are here to help him. It is a minor injury and in a few more weeks we hope he will be ready.”
Alli is joined on the treatment table by Juan Foyth after the young Argentina defender suffered a more serious injury to his ankle. “It’s a tough injury and it’s many weeks [of recovery],” Pochettino said. “The medical staff are going to update in the next few days. We hope he can recover as soon as possible.”
Speaking more broadly about his squad at the start of the season he said: “We arrive in very good condition, though not ideal.”
The transfer window closes on Thursday and whether Pochettino will add to his squad remains to be seen. Spurs’ club-record signing at £55m, Tanguy Ndombele, is the only new name Pochettino has at his disposal but, when asked about more players arriving, there was no repeat of the complaints made in Germany last week regarding a lack of involvement in transfer dealings.
“The chairman [Daniel Levy] is in Miami and I didn’t have an opportunity to talk to him,” Pochettino said. “I am happy with my squad. You can see today that we have a lot of young ones. But in every season we are always open to improve the squad, to find the right player to do better. There is still four days – we will see what happens.”
Spurs drew 1-1 over 90 minutes against Inter in an International Champions Cup match. Lucas Moura scored for Tottenham, making the most of a quick counterattack three minutes into the first half and powering a right-foot shot inside Samir Handanovic’s near post.
Inter were slow to find their feet, despite the incessant promptings of Conte, the former Chelsea manager, but equalised in the 36th minute when the midfielder Stefano Sensi turned home an exquisite flick from the teenage striker Sebastiano Esposito.
The best chance of the second half fell to Tottenham on the hour but Erik Lamela allowed Stefan de Vrij time to block his shot from 10 yards out. In general, Spurs struggled to make inroads against Inter’s back three, and the deluge of substitutions only disrupted play further.
It was no surprise when the game went to penalties and Handanovic made the decisive intervention, saving the spot-kick of the young midfielder Oliver Skipp.