Mousa Dembélé has sustained a foot injury in training that, according to Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, is causing him pain when he kicks the ball. It is the latest setback for the midfielder and Pochettino said he would undergo further tests on Friday.
It is unclear whether Dembélé will be available to play at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, or for how long he will be sidelined, but what is known is that it is a recurrence of an old injury.
Dembélé had come back into training after the hamstring injury he picked up against Sunderland on 18 September when he got a stamp on the top of his left foot. At the beginning of last season, he was out for five weeks with an injury to the same foot.
“He got a problem against Sunderland and then he got a knock in his foot and that is an old problem,” Pochettino said. “He is now recovering from that. It’s minor but for him it’s painful. When he touches the ball it’s always painful for him.”
Dembélé missed Tottenham’s first four matches of the season because of the suspension that he received at the end of the previous campaign for gouging the eye of Chelsea’s Diego Costa, and he has played only twice since – as a half-time substitute in the Champions League tie against Monaco on 14 September and then as a starter against Sunderland. He was withdrawn in the 74th minute with what Pochettino initially thought was cramp in his hamstring but the problem turned out to be more serious.
The Spurs manager had better news on Harry Kane, who has not played since he seriously damaged the ligaments in his right ankle against Sunderland. It was reported on 26 September that the striker had the chance of coming back in time for the north London derby at Arsenal on 6 November – which had previously seemed beyond him – and Pochettino fired those hopes when he said that Kane would return to light training.
“At the end of this week, maybe he can start to train and touch the grass a little bit,” Pochettino said. “He’s very positive, he’s doing well. We’ll see. We don’t know when he’ll play. We can only explain that he’s doing well. We hope that next week he’ll be training on the grass, on the pitch – still not with the group – but we’re happy in the way he is recovering from his injury.”
