Mauricio Pochettino on Alderweireld injury: too soon to assess

The biggest loser from today’s 1-1 draw between West Bromwich Albion and Tottenham Hotspur (besides the sport of football) was undoubtedly Toby Alderweireld. Spurs’ hulking center back was stretchered off in the second half of the draw after a collision in the box with a West Brom player, and it looked like he injured his knee.

Mauricio Pochettino confirmed in post-match comments to the media that Alderweireld did pick up an injury, but was cagy on many details.

So this was the expected (non-)answer, but it does at least mean that this is a thing and probably not just a knock. If it weren’t serious, Poche probably would’ve said so. However, it sure looked like Toby did his knee, which is all kinds of bad.

As it is, this means that Spurs will need to reshuffle their defense for the time being at the beginning of one of their most crucial stretches of the season. Spurs head to Germany to play Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday before traveling to Bournemouth next Saturday.

Eric Dier was the replacement for Toby in this match, but it remains to be seen whether Poche will see Dier as the natural replacement for Toby or if he’ll turn to Kevin Wimmer or Cameron Carter-Vickers as the understudy in future games. This probably does open up a window of opportunity for Wimmer, though he’s considered more of a replacement for Jan Vertonghen than Toby.

Depending on the severity of the injury, the injury to Alderweireld could be either very bad for Spurs or a momentary hitch. We’ll have to wait a while before we know.