It was late July, the day before Tottenham’s penultimate pre-season friendly, when Oliver Skipp went up for a header with a team-mate in training and was caught painfully as they landed.
Skipp was left with a deep cut in his foot, requiring several stitches, and the wound was so gruesome that several of his team-mates had to look away as he received treatment on the Hotspur Way pitches.