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I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Tottenham Hotspur is set to welcome starting goalkeeper Hugo Lloris back from injury for Saturday’s trip to the Brittania Stadium when they take on Stoke City. The bad news is that the club also confirmed the hamstring injury to Danny Rose and that he will NOT make the trip to Stoke. Mousa Dembele is serving his final game of his suspension.
Mauricio on TEAM NEWS: "Hugo is ready and available to play. He's in a good condition to travel." #COYS pic.twitter.com/eTPKupeE0y
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 8, 2016
Mauricio: "Danny is out (hamstring). He's very disappointed after the game v Slovakia - sometimes this happens, hopefully it's not too bad."
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 8, 2016
Having Hugo back is always good news, though thankfully reserve keeper Michel Vorm was pretty much spectacular in his two games between the sticks for Spurs. As good as Vorm’s been, though, Hugo is still better and I feel instantly more secure about Tottenham’s defense with him captaining the side again.
Losing Danny is a major bummer, but the good news is that we have a good backup for him in Ben Davies. He brings a different skill set to the team than Rose — less speed and perhaps less dynamism going forward, but solid defensive positioning. We hopefully won’t see too much of a drop-off with him in the side.
Interestingly, the club didn’t make a mention of Erik Lamela and whether he will or won’t be featuring for Spurs. Lamela played 67’ in Argentina’s 2-2 World Cup qualification draw against Venezuela on Tuesday night and isn’t expected to return to London until some time today, meaning he’ll have one day to train and get over the jet lag before the Stoke match.
It’s led some to speculate that he’ll be rested for Spurs’ first Champions League match against Monaco on Wednesday at Wembley. If Lamela can’t go, it’s not clear yet what Mauricio Pochettino will do. We could see Son Heung-Min come in for his first game time of the season, or we could see new signing Moussa Sissoko.
As for Stoke, Mame Diouf and Xherdan Shaqiri are listed as questionable with minor injuries. Glen Johnson is probably out for another week yet, and Jack Butland, Stephen Ireland, and Ibrahim Afellay are all on the long-term injury and won’t be seen until 2017.