Tottenham Hotspur have struggled at right-back all season so far, something that seems to stem back to the club’s decision to sell Kieran Trippier.
Trippier had been Tottenham’s first-choice right-back ever since Kyle Walker left for Man City, and performed highly for England at the World Cup in 2018.
While many hoped he would kick on from that summer in Russia, Trippier endured what was probably his worst season in a Spurs shirt.
However, the England international has now revealed that his season was tainted with injury throughout, admitting that he was selfish in not revealing this to the manager.
The Atletico Madrid right-back says that his desire to play in the first-team each week pushed him to keep the problems to himself, which resulted in poor performances.
Trippier has now put his problems behind him to earn a spot in the Atletico regular starting XI, while Spurs and Pochettino are left not knowing who to turn to at right-back.
Trippier said (Daily Mail): “There are injuries and there are other things that happen behind the scenes and your head is not quite there.
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“You are still trying to do your best but things are not quite right and it’s an awful place to be.
“Sometimes I feel that I was selfish in the sense that when I was really struggling with injuries I didn’t maybe open up to the manager and say: ‘I’m injured’. As players, we don’t want to lose our place.
“That ended up damaging me because I was getting murdered on the pitch. I was making silly errors.
“Maybe I should have taken a step back and said ‘I’m struggling’. But I just wanted to play.”
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