Victor Wanyama picks up knee injury on preseason tour

Victor Wanyama did not participate in Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-1 drubbing of AS Roma to open their preseason tour, as he suffered a knee injury in training the day before the match.

As Dan Kilpatrick of the Evening Standard reports, Wanyama injured the same knee that he did during last year’s preseason tour. It was an injury that kept him out for most of the first half of the season, only returning to full fitness in January.

Per Kilpatrick, the club insists Wanyama’s exclusion against Roma was precautionary, and he is set to undergo assessment ahead of the team’s match against FC Barcelona on Saturday in Los Angeles.

Should Wanyama miss more preseason matches, Luke Amos may get more minutes in defensive midfield after playing a majority of the match against Roma. More tinkering with the midfield may follow in the remainder of Spurs’ preseason tour of the United States, with 17-year-old Oliver Skipp able to play there.

If Wanyama’s injury is more serious than that, it may put Spurs in a bind similar to the beginning of last year, when the team was spread too thin at the position. Eric Dier is an obvious option once the season gets underway, but after him it gets more complicated. Mousa Dembélé may not be around once the season starts, and Harry Winks still has not been deemed fit by the club, leaving Mauricio Pochettino with many midfielders who are not naturally defensively minded.