Son Heung-min, Eric Dier, Steven Bergwijn and Cristian Romero are all out of Tottenham’s Carabao Cup clash at home to Chelsea tonight.
After making eight changes for Sunday’s underwhelming FA Cup win over Morecambe, Spurs coach Antonio Conte is expected to revert back to his trusted senior players, with his side trailing 2-0 from the first leg of the semi-final at Stamford Bridge.
Harry Kane and Lucas Moura, who came off the bench to rescue the third-round tie against Morecambe, return to the XI, while Emerson Royal, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Davinson Sanchez all also start.
Sergio Reguilon is also out so Matt Doherty gets another opportunity at left wing-back.
“[There are] no fresh players injured but we didn’t recover the players that are injured,” Conte said on Tuesday. “I don’t want to speak about names. But we have a couple of situations, a couple of injuries that are very close to start playing again.
“But at the same time, I think it’s better not to take stupid risks for the game tomorrow because we risk losing these players for a long time. It’s important to give them the right time to recover and for this reason tomorrow we didn’t recover any players from the last game.”
Conte revealed Bergwijn and Romero were both “very close” to returning to training and said of the Argentina defender: “Today Cristian had a little part of a training session with us. We’re talking about another important player for us.
“We lost him for almost two months and I think we faced this situation in the best possible way because Cristian for sure is an important player for us.
“Despite this, the players who played and showed to be good and they improved. For example, Sanchez is improving a lot. Now, Cristian is very close to coming back and being available.”
Tottenham starting XI (3-5-2): Gollini, Royal, Tanganga, Sanchez, Davies, Doherty, Hojbjerg, Winks, Lucas, Lo Celso, Kane
Where: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
When: Wednesday, January 12, 7:45pm GMT
Referee: Andre Marriner
Out: Dier, Romero, Bergwijn, Son
Doubts: Reguilon
