Tottenham face injury crisis ahead of Liverpool with…

Tottenham face injury crisis ahead of Liverpool with with five first-team players out

Antonio Conte will need to solve an attacking shortage when his Tottenham side comes face-to-face with Liverpool on Sunday.

The Reds will head to North London desperate to register a first away win of the season after back-to-back defeats against Nottingham Forest and Leeds United dented their Premier League ambitions.

Spurs sit 10 points above Jurgen Klopp's side in third place, but they have been rocked by the loss this week of one of their star players. Heung-Min Son has been ruled out of Sunday's clash after the club confirmed that the forward needs to undergo surgery to fix a fractured eye socket, sustained during the 2-1 Champions League victory against Marseille on Tuesday evening.

Conte's forward line was already without the services of Dejan Kulusevski, who has been suffering with a hamstring injury and former Everton favourite Richarlison, who has a calf muscle complaint.

But the Italian boss gave an encouraging update on Kulusevski, which suggested that the Swede may have half a chance of featuring against the Reds. Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Conte said: "It's better to start with a smile. We need to face this situation. We have these injuries. Richarlison is not available for the game. Rodrigo Bentancur is much better and today was a part of training session. The same for Kulusevski, he had half a training session with us."

With Son and Richarlison absent and Kulusevski's chances considered to be slim, Lucas Moura may have been called upon to partner Harry Kane in attack, but even he has had his own issues this week and could also be a doubt for the game.

Conte said: "The problem with Lucas Moura is having different faces for his pain. Today it was really bad and they said he was really worried for this. I asked him to try to be available."

Elsewhere on the pitch, Spurs will also be without Argentine centre-back Cristian Romaro, who has on-going issues with his calf, shin and heel, although he would dearly like to be involved against Liverpool. Conte added: "About Romero, I can tell you that for him if he has the possibility to play with one leg he will play with the one leg. I would tell the fans that we have players really committed to the club. Maybe Romero he had an injury because we wanted to take a risk and he had this injury, but for sure many teams are having big injuries."

During his press conference, Conte also took the opportunity to pay tribute to Klopp and drew reference to the benefits of keeping a top manager in their job for a sustained period to help make a team successful.

Conte said: "I have great respect for Jurgen because his story speaks for him. He has changed the face of Liverpool. I remember very well Liverpool didn't win for a long period. He needed four years to help Liverpool win again and for sure it shows it is important for the coach to have time. Liverpool can be a good example for us."

Liverpool supporters will be hoping that the hosts' lack of offensive options will give the Reds the opportunity to put their recent league form problems behind them and grab an all important three points on the road, narrowing the gap between themselves and the top-four in the process.

READ NEXT

Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.

Already a member? Sign in here