Tottenham have been handed a huge injury scare ahead of the Champions League final as Jan Vertonghen left the Johan Cruyff ArenA on crutches and wearing a protective boot.
The centre-half, who played most of the game against Ajax in a protective mask after requiring stitches to a nose injury sustained in the first leg last week, is said to have sustained minor damage to his ankle during the first half, even though he appeared to have completed the 90 minutes unscathed.
Vertonghen was set for a scan on his return to London but Spurs sources do not expect him to feature in Sunday’s season finale at home to Everton. The 32-year-old —who has been at Spurs since 2012 — could now face a race against time to be fit for the June 1 showpiece against Liverpool in Madrid.
Meanwhile, Harry Kane is confident he will be fit to spearhead Spurs’s bid to lift the trophy.
After joining his team-mates’ celebrations following their remarkable semi-final victory over Ajax, the England captain believes he can recover from an ankle ligament injury — the fifth of his career — in time to take on Jurgen Klopp’s team.
Kane did the latest damage in the 1-0 win over Manchester City in the first leg of the quarter-final on April 9, after which boss Mauricio Pochettino admitted the 25-year-old may miss the remainder of the campaign.
But that was before Spurs knew their season would extend to June. The Premier League campaign ends on Sunday, leaving Kane three more weeks to regain fitness.
He said: “Hopefully [I’ll be fit]. Rehab is going well so far. I start straight-line running this week. So far, so good. If it carries on how it should, then I would hope to be [fit], but there is still a few weeks to go.”
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