Spurs suffer injury blow as Lloris out for six weeks
Goalkeeper damaged knee ligaments in City victory South African sponsorship deal worth £42.5m collapses
Tottenham Hotspur are set to be without captain Hugo Lloris for at least six weeks after the goalkeeper damaged a knee in the victory over Manchester City.
And the club suffered another significant blow with the news that they are likely to lose out on a £42.5million South Africa sponsorship deal.
Initial gloomy predictions suggested that Lloris could even miss the rest of the season, but Tottenham are hoping the Frenchman will be able to return in six to eight weeks.
That represents a significant blow for head coach Antonio
Conte and the club’s hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions
League.
Lloris required treatment late in the game against City, which Spurs won 1-0, but scans have since confirmed he suffered damage to the ligaments in his knee and will now need a period of recovery.
Tottenham are hoping that Lloris will be able to recover without the need for surgery, but he will continue to be checked.
Lloris is set to miss both legs of
Tottenham’s last-16 Champions League tie against AC Milan as well as the FA Cup trip to Sheffield United and Premier League games against Leicester City, West Ham United, Chelsea, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest and Southampton before the international break.
The victory over City moved Spurs just a point behind fourthplaced Newcastle United with their top-four hopes very much alive.
Lloris has faced criticism following a number of errors this season, particularly after the World Cup, but he kept back-to-back clean sheets in league victories over City and Fulham, which have reinvigorated Tottenham’s season.
Fraser Forster will deputise for Lloris, having made four appearances for Tottenham this season after joining the club in the summer on a free transfer from Celtic.
Across his four games, Forster has conceded four goals – two of which came in the draw with Brentford on Boxing Day, which is his only Premier League appearance for Spurs. Either Brandon Austin or Alfie Whiteman will have to step up to the bench.
Spurs’ finances, meanwhile, have suffered a blow with the collapse of a sponsorship deal with the official tourism board of South Africa. Leaked details of a reported three-year partnership sparked public outrage in a nation affected by power blackouts and water shortages, and the parliament’s tourism committee are adamant that the idea must be halted.
“This deal, it ends here, today, now, because there is everything wrong about the deal itself,” said committee chairperson Tandi Mahambehlala, adding: “There must be an investigation on this matter with immediate effect.”
South African Tourism had conditionally approved a reported deal understood to have included kit branding, interview backdrop branding, match-day advertising, training camps in South Africa as well as free access to tickets and stadium hospitality.
Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu, however, said yesterday that she had no knowledge of the proposed deal. Sisuli said it was within the tourism board’s remit to explore opportunities but that the final decision would rest with the Treasury and South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa. “I am not aware that any agreement has been signed with Tottenham Hotspur,” she said. “That would only happen after agreements from the Treasury. So we do not have a deal, as far as government is concerned.”
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has also indicated that the deal will not be supported, saying that Ramaphosa “did not think spending so much money in the manner that is being suggested will be justified”.
Scrapping the reported proposed deal would be a blow to Tottenham’s attempts to continue growing their commercial revenues.
They are ninth in Deloitte’s Football Money League after already increasing their commercial income from £104million in 2018 to £191million last year. Tottenham have
not commented.