Tottenham Hotspur could still be without Ben Davies for the upcoming North London derby, as his race to regain full fitness comes down to the wire.
Davies suffered a knee injury in the Champions League game against Sporting Lisbon at the start of September (The Athletic). The Welshman completed the 90 minutes, but has been out of action since.
He has since missed the Premier League victory over Leicester City, and had to withdraw from international duty with Wales for the doubleheader against Belgium and Poland.
It was initially expected that Davies would be out for three weeks with the hairline fracture (Football.London). Speaking to GiveMeSport, journalist Tom Barclay suggested the injury may not be ‘as serious as it sounds’.
With the international break now over and players gearing up for the return of Premier League action this weekend, Davies is touch and go for Spurs’ trip to Arsenal.
Antonio Conte may have to prepare Clement Lenglet for duty, as Tom Barclay provided an update to GiveMeSport which doesn’t appear to be as positive as his previous assessment of Davies’ injury status.
He said: “The suggestion was that he was always going to miss the two Wales games but has a good chance of coming back for Arsenal.
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“Rob Page spoke about his injury and said it’s not serious, but I still think with the Arsenal game being so close there’s no guarantee he’ll be fit for the game, but fingers crossed because there is a good chance.”
Spurs Web Opinion
We know how highly Antonio Conte values fitness in his players, and you would think it’s very unlikely he would throw Ben Davies into such a big game without full-match fitness.
The fact the Welshman hasn’t played for the last three weeks will put a big question mark over his readiness for the Arsenal game, regardless of whether the knee injury is resolved.
While Davies is an experienced and composed presence in defence for Spurs, having Clement Lenglet to step in is not a bad thing at all.
Lenglet has plenty of experience in big matches, and his ball-playing abilities could serve Spurs well on the counter-attack against Arsenal.
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