Mauricio Pochettino called on the rest of his talented squad to step up after Harry Kane suffered an ankle injury in Sunday’s 4-1 win at Bournemouth. Kane could well be facing a long spell on the sidelines after turning his ankle in a first-half collision with Asmir Begovic, as his goal was ruled out for offside with Spurs trailing 1-0 to Junior Stanislas’ precise opener. He was able to walk around the pitch to the dugout, where he conversed with Spurs’ medical staff before being replaced by Erik Lamela. Dele Alli equalised and then Son Heung-Min, who moved up-front, scored twice in the second half before Serge Aurier’s close range effort added gloss to a victory which Spurs moved above Liverpool and into third place. Kane will have a scan on Monday and Pochettino has insisted the striker was “positive,” even though the injury is to the same ankle that kept him sidelined for two months in 2016. He said: “We played fantastic football. Sonny was great in scoring twice, Dele, Lamela had good performances. But for me the whole team and the whole squad too.Football is about the whole squad and today with different players our performance was fantastic. If you want to be competitive and you want to arrive to the end of the season with some possibility to win something or achieve all the targets you have, you need a big squad. You need 24 or 25 players with the same objective — to fight for the team and help the team when the gaffer calls on them.” Son’s double made it seven goals in two weeks for the Korean after his midweek goal in the Champions League defeat to Juventus and doubles against Rochdale and Huddersfield in the FA Cup and league respectively. If Kane is sidelined for a sustained period Son is likely to lead the line starting with next week’s FA Cup quarterfinal at Swansea and when We return to Premier League action at Chelsea on April 1st.
On Aurier, Pochettino said “He was happy for the victory and then when you score it’s a massive moment for the players. For him it’s special because he’s not a player who scores a lot of goals during the season,”
Pochettino went on to say : “It will be strange because we come from Champions League, Premier League and then FA Cup. But I think it is good news because, for us, that we don’t play Premier League at the weekend because we’re still in the FA Cup, we are still alive in a different competition.” Pochettino had sympathy with Bournemouth after Callum Wilson’s equalising goal at 2-1 was ruled out for a push on Davinson Sanchez. “It was so difficult for me to see from my position, you need to trust the referee, sometimes it is for you and sometimes against you,” he said. He added: “Look, in football you need always some luck because the decision should be different, maybe now we are talking in a different way, but that is football, it happened Wednesday [against Juventus], happened the week before, but I accept football is like this. Pochettino also added: “I think Bournemouth is a very good team, I think Eddie [Howe] is doing a great job, they have a very good squad, very good players and they are in a position today that they are safe, of course a lot of work to do but I think they are a very good team and showed great quality today.”
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