Promising Spurs midfielder to miss North London Derby with injury

If you've been scanning milk cartons lately for pictures of Alex Pritchard's face, you're not alone. Many Spurs fans, myself included, have been champing at the bit to see him, wondering why he seemingly was not in Pochettino's plans after dominating the Championship last season. Now we know why. Sky Sports is reporting that Pritchard is likely to miss out on this Wednesday's Capital One Cup third round match against Arsenal due to injury.

Sky's report suggests that Pritchard is still dealing with the ankle injury he picked up this summer while representing England alongside Harry Kane in the U21 European Championships. He did make a short feature for Spurs in the home draw to Everton on August 29 and has made a few appearances for Spurs' U21 side over the past few weeks, but apparently that ankle isn't healing as quickly or well as what he had hoped.

Pritchard was a key member of the Mark Warburton-led Brentford side that catapulted into the Championship playoffs last season after being promoted from League One the season before. He made 45 appearances for the Bees and scored 12 goals, and many tipped him to be a major contributor to Tottenham this season.

According to Sky, Mauricio Pochettino is hoping that recovering midfielders Mousa Dembele and Ryan Mason will be fit enough to feature against Arsenal on Wednesday, and even suggests that Christian Eriksen may start the match as he continues his own return from injury.

Having a few of these injured midfielders get a match under their belt – a North London Derby, even – would be fantastic, as it would mean that there would be opportunities to rest key players ahead of Saturday's league match against top of the table Manchester City.