Toby Alderweireld withdraws from Belgium squad due to stomach flu

It's not an injury, but it's still mildly concerning news for Tottenham Hotspur: starting defender Toby Alderweireld has withdrawn from the Belgium national team and is returning home to Tottenham due to an illness. Various reports are calling it "gastroenteritis." The illness was confirmed by the Red Devils' official Twitter account earlier today.

I've had the stomach flu, and it suuuuuuucks. Depending on the severity of it it can lay you low for a few days to over a week. We have no idea of the severity of the illness, but Toby's a professional athlete, so it stands to reason that he has a better than average chance of a faster recovery thanks to a healthy lifestyle and access to some of the best medical care.

Spurs travel to Anfield to take on Liverpool on Saturday – a critical league match where it would be extremely useful to have your best defender on the pitch. However, Jan Vertonghen had previously stated that he hoped to be back by the end of the international break, and it's always possible to push Eric Dier back into central defense if needed. With Kevin Wimmer playing incredibly well lately, it's quite possible that Spurs could cope with the absence of Alderweireld. But let's hope he recovers quickly so they don't have to.