Ange Postecoglou has conceded that an injury sustained by Tottenham winger Wilson Odobert during the Carabao Cup tie at Coventry looked “fairly significant”.
Spurs’ surprise £25million summer signing from Burnley returned to the starting lineup for Wednesday night’s dramatic third-round clash against Championship opposition, in one of eight changes made following the north London derby defeat by Arsenal on Sunday.
However, Odobert’s evening in the West Midlands was ended prematurely after only 18 minutes as he went down holding the back of his right thigh and received treatment on the pitch before limping off to be replaced by eventual last-gasp match-winner Brennan Johnson.
It was one of two injury blows suffered by Tottenham against Coventry, with Timo Werner also making way after a rare start with just over 15 minutes to play following a knock.
His replacement, Dejan Kulusevski, was instrumental in Spurs’ thrilling comeback that saw two goals in four minutes from fellow substitutes Djed Spence and Johnson cancel out Brandon Thomas-Asante’s second-half opener and seal a place in the draw for the fourth round.
But while Postecoglou is uncertain as to the severity of Werner’s issue, he admitted that Odobert’s injury did look potentially significant.
“Hard to say, Wilson looked fairly significant, so we'll just wait and see,” the Spurs boss said in his post-match press conference.
“Timo, again not really sure if it was just fatigue but yeah, a bit unfortunate for both of those. Obviously, both play in a similar position as well. We're hoping it's not something too significant.”
Some Spurs fans wondered if Destiny Udogie had also suffered an injury against Coventry, having been substituted at half-time.
However, Postecoglou has allayed any worries over the Italian international by revealing that it was always his plan to give 45 minutes each to Udogie and Spence on the night.
“Yeah, it was always the plan for him to play 45 tonight,” Postecoglou said of Udogie. “He missed a lot of pre-season so it is a balancing act with him to get us some game time because he is not 100 per cent fit. Tonight it was always the plan to play him 45 and play Djed 45.”
