Jan Vertonghen injury: Andre Villas-Boas confirms defender out 2-3 weeks

Tottenham Hotspur has provided an update on the fitness of Jan Vertonghen, and it's about as expected. An MRI revealed that Vertonghen has damaged, but thankfully not ruptured the anterior talofibular ligament of his left ankle. According to Andre Villas-Boas, the timetable on his return is 2-3 weeks.

"Jan has damaged his ankle ligament, the ATFL and he's most likely going to be out of training for two to three weeks."

It's good that Vertonghen won't miss an extensive amount of time with his injury, but it's bad enough that he'll be in a race to get fit in time for the season opener against Crystal Palace on August 18. Younes Kaboul should be in contention to start matches by that time as well, but Steven Caulker and Michael Dawson are certainly the favorites to start the season opener at central defense as it stands.

On a slightly unrelated note, I'm encouraged that the team passed along some specific injury news in a timely fashion. Hopefully this becomes a trend.