Conte suggests “serious” hamstring injury to Tottenham defender Cuti Romero

Tottenham Hotspur fans may need to brace themselves against the fact that they may be without Cuti Romero for an extended period of time. In his pre-match interview ahead of Spurs’ Europa Conference League match at NS Mura tomorrow, head coach Antonio Conte admitted that the hamstring injury that Romero picked up last week while playing for Argentina against arch-rivals Brazil is “serious” and that the central defender could miss a not-insignificant amount of time.

Conte also announced injuries to fellow Argentine international Giovani Lo Celso and young striker Dane Scarlett.

“Scarlett at this moment is not available. During the international break he had a problem with his ankle and now he’s not available. He’s injured, in the same way like Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso. But we’re talking about a young player with great talent and for sure I can’t wait to work with him and to know him much better.

“About Cristian Romero, we’re waiting for another scan. Honestly, I think his injury is serious. We have to wait. I don’t know now the time he needs to recovery. Surely his injury is more serious than Giovani Lo Celso or Dane Scarlett. We have to wait for the next scan and then the doctor can give more information on the dates for his recovery.”

That sucks. I was already irritated that Tottenham’s Argentina and Brazil stars kept getting called up for international duty despite it being beyond obvious that both nations were going to easily qualify for the World Cup next winter. Indeed, by the time the 0-0 draw that saw Romero injured happened, Brazil had already qualified, and the draw secured qualification for Argentina. It was stupid, and Romero really didn’t need to play.

Romero went on to reiterate that he plans to rotate his side against Mura on Thanksgiving, and even went on to confirm that Ryan Sessegnon would start the match.

“Ryan in my opinion has great potential. We have seen in the past he suffered a lot of injuries. Now we’re trying to work in the right way with him. With his type of player, it’s very important during training to push your engine to a high level and have good training sessions. In this way you’re trained during the game to bring high intensity and level of performance.

“We’re working with him for the past two weeks, now he’s ready to start the game tomorrow. And yeah, I can’t wait to see his performance because he’s a talented player, very young with great space for improvement. Now it’s important to give him regularity to try to avoid injury and give him the chance to be available for every game.”

We don’t know who else Conte will play against a Slovenian side that is winless in their ECL qualifying group, but it’s likely we’ll see a mix of established first teamers and reserves or younger players. While the injury to Dane Scarlett means we’ll probably see Harry Kane start the match, it’s also likely we’ll see players such as Matt Doherty, Pierluigi Gollini, Steven Bergwijn, Tanguy Ndombele, Dele, and Joe Rodon.