Ange Postecoglou has revealed Richarlison is “hobbling about” with a calf injury, with Tottenham waiting for the full results of a scan.
The Brazilian striker had scored one goal and assisted another last weekend as Tottenham lost 4-2 to Liverpool at Anfield.
He then pulled up in the “last kick” of Friday’s training session, with the news of a calf injury breaking when Brazil manager Dorival Junior left him out of his Copa America squad and revealed injury to be the reason why.
Richarlison then missed Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Burnley on Saturday but was present at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as players did a lap of honour in their penultimate home game of the season.
“It was unfortunate”, Postecoglou said of Richarlison’s injury. “I know I did the press conference yesterday, but it [the injury] was literally the last kick of the game and I saw him hobble off and I assumed it was nothing serious.
“Then it didn’t get any better later on in the evening and he was sent for a scan on his calf and I still don’t know the results of that to be honest. But watching him today he was still hobbling about.”
The Spurs head coach added: “So that made it difficult for us. Like you said, I had to get creative with the set-up [against Burnley], knowing that in the last half-hour we would probably be dominant from a physical perspective because we have been, pretty consistently.
“Dane [Scarlett] came on and worked really hard.”
Beating Burnley, who were relegated by the result, kept alive Spurs’s faint hopes of Champions League football. Aston Villa remain four points above them in fourth place with two games each left to play though.
“We’ve still got six points to play for — that’s the key thing for us”, Postecoglou said.
“There’s a big game for us on Tuesday night against [Manchester] City and it will be a great test for us, and the Sheffield United one. We’ll [keep] playing our football and see what points we get and where we end up.”
