Tottenham’s top-four push has been dealt a blow after Matt Doherty was ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
Doherty was forced off in the first half of Saturday’s 4-0 win at Aston Villa following a robust challenge from Matty Cash and scans yesterday revealed he has ruptured his medial collateral ligament, which is expected to rule him out for three months.
The wing-back will miss Spurs’ final seven games of the season and the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League matches in June.
Doherty has established himself as first choice on the right of the back five since the turn of the year and even impressed on the opposite flank, where he started on Saturday.
His loss is a blow to Conte, with Emerson Royal having failed to deliver the same kind of impact from wing-back.
Speaking before Saturday’s game, Conte described Doherty, 30, as a "good example" to the rest of his squad.
"Matthew is the typical player that is showing big improvement,” the Italian said. "If you remember at the start he didn’t play a lot with me because at that moment I think he didn’t deserve to play. Then he worked very hard. He is a really good guy and in every training session you see the desire and the will to improve himself," the Italian said today.
"He has a great mentality, many times when players don’t play a lot they go down mentally. Instead he has shown me to be strong and shown me ‘I do what you want, I am going to improve and when I am ready I want to play’.
"He has shown me that not with talking, but with attitude and behaviour. He is playing very well and with great confidence and I am very happy for him. It’s a good example for everyone."
Meanwhile, Harry Kane will be back in training on Tuesday following a two-day break at the Masters in Augusta.
Conte gave his squad Sunday and Monday off following their fourth straight league win and Kane went straight from Villa Park to catch a plane to Georgia to watch the golf.
