Alderweireld’s injury worse than initially feared

Toby Alderweireld’s injury is worse than originally feared and he is likely to be sidelined until after Christmas with a hamstring injury, according to manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Toby pulled up in our 3-1 win over Real Madrid on November 1st and he said himself afterwards he would be out for “a few weeks.”

However Mauricio Pochettino was the bearer of bad news when speaking ahead of Saturday’s North London derby at Arsenal.

“Toby is out. We need to assess him but we expect longer than previously we thought when the problem happened,” Pochettino told a news conference on Thursday.

Pochettino added: “Maybe after Christmas — that’s the expectation. It will be longer [than we thought]. The injury is in his hamstring. It’s only him and Victor Wanyama [who are injured] then, who we assess every day. We need to wait.”

Toby missed the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace a fortnight ago and we now have nine matches before Christmas: the Champions League group games against Borussia Dortmund and APOEL Nicosia, and a run of Premier League Fixtures against West Brom, Leicester, Watford, Stoke, Brighton, Manchester City and Burnley.

ESPN quote Pochettino as saying “He feels normal, feels disappointed, a little sad,” Pochettino said, adding that the injury is “completely different” to the nerve damage that sidelined the Belgium international for six weeks last season.

Pochettino added “In the same way, he’s focused on recovering as soon as possible, working hard in the first stage of rehab,” he said. “We’re happy. Always, in first stage on injury, you need caution. It’s a process of time. We need to wait.”

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