has been left sweating on the fitness of Rodrigo Bentancur after he came off with an ankle injury during ’s defeat to .
in North London on Sunday, with and Ollie Watkins bagging the goals after Giovani Lo Celso had opened the scoring.
The result leaves Spurs fifth in the table, four points off leaders Manchester City with a trip to the Etihad next Sunday next on the agenda.
And they’ll go into the big clash amidst a huge injury crisis that only worsened during the Villa loss, with Bentancur forced off after 32 minutes following a bad tackle from Matty Cash, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg taking his place.
It was the midfielder’s first start for his club since February having only just recovered from an ACL injury, and Postecoglou didn’t sound confident that the Uruguayan would be making a speedy recovery.
‘It is his ankle I think. It wasn’t a great tackle,’ the manager said in his post-match press conference.
‘I thought he started the game so well and I think it was the reason we got a real good foothold on the game. He’s such a creative player.
‘It’s the last thing we needed, another injury. So disappointed to lose him but we’re yet to see the extent of it.’
The Spurs treatment room is nearly at breaking point, with James Maddison, Micky van de Ven and Richarlison among the players currently on the sidelines.
This led to Postecoglou only naming eight subs – two of whom were goalkeepers – with the manager stating that that was ‘a pretty good summation’ of their injury crisis.
He added: ‘We have got eight [injuries], Bentancur nine, we had a couple of suspensions today and we’ve only got a squad of 25. You do the sums and that’s what we’ve got.
‘We lost Ashley Phillips during the week as well. It is just the situation we’re in at the moment, but we’ll get through it.
‘It might take a little while, but we’ll get through it and as long as we show the same intent and play the football we did today, I’ve got no doubt when we come out the other side, we’ll be a very good football team.’
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