Tottenham without Dier, Winks, Aurier for Liverpool match

This season, it seems like it doesn’t matter whether Tottenham Hotspur have a long layoff or not — they are still always dealing with injuries. Tottenham released team news on social media today heading into Sunday’s crucial Premier League match against Liverpool at Anfield, and Spurs are without three players, including their two central midfielders.

Eric Dier is confirmed out of the match after sustaining an injury with England during international duty, while Harry Winks continues to rehabilitate with an injury of his own, sustained before Spurs’ long layoff. Serge Aurier, who was also injured during the international break in an African Cup of Nations qualifier with Ivory Coast, is also out.

We’ll get into what this means for Spurs’ lineup in an article a little later on today, but this sucks. Spurs are already on a skid, having taken just one point out of their last 12 in the league, and have gone from favorites for third place to a real scrap for top four. Points against Liverpool aren’t essential, but they would go a long, long way towards ensuring that Spurs don’t slip out of the Champions League places.

The injury to Dier is particularly galling, considering the amount of time Dier has missed already in the second half of the season due to an appendectomy and tonsillitis. To be injured on international duty after only just returning to fitness is somewhat apoplexy-inducing.

The silver lining is that Liverpool are not without their own injury concerns. Trent Alexander-Arnold was forced to withdraw from the England squad with an injury himself, making him a doubt for Sunday’s match. Xherdan Shaqiri also skipped international duty, though he’s on the verge of returning to the squad. Naby Keita and Joe Gomez are also questionable. But the bulk of Liverpool’s starting XI are healthy, and if they want to continue to pressure Manchester City for the title, they’ll need a win. That should be sufficient motivation for the Reds.