captain Hugo Lloris will not play again this season after sustaining an injury last month and there are suggestions he may even have played his last game for the club.
The winner was withdrawn at half-time of last month’s humiliating 6-1 defeat to at St James’ Park, having shipped five goals in the first 21 minutes.
Lloris , apologising to supporters, and revealed that early assessments of the hip injury ‘did not sound good’.
Caretaker boss – who replaced previous interim coach Cristian Stellini after the defeat to Newcastle – has now confirmed that Lloris will miss the remaining four games of the season.
‘Hugo is out for the season, we’ve had the results back,’ said Mason at his pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of facing Crystal Palace.
‘Obviously it’s disappointing. We feared that initially and now we’ve had the results back.’
Fraser Forster is set to continue in goal against the Eagles, having played the second half at Newcastle as well as in subsequent matches against Manchester United and Liverpool – conceding seven goals in the space of those 225 minutes.
Lloris, meanwhile, only has a year left on his contract with Spurs and there are suggestions he could leave the club this summer if he is displaced as the first-choice goalkeeper.
The 36-year-old’s form has deteriorated significantly this season, making a number of gaffes, while he has been hampered by several injuries; he could see out the final year of his deal as backup, but are reporting that he is more likely to seek a new challenge elsewhere.
Asked about the keeper’s future, Mason replied: ‘I can’t speak about that but we need him as our captain for the remainder of this season.’
Lloris has been a great servant to the club since joining in 2012 and is Tottenham’s record appearance holder in the Premier League, with the damaging defeat to Newcastle a sad note to finish his career on.
In other injury news, Ryan Sessegnon will also miss the final four matches of the season but Yves Bissouma and Emerson Royal could play a part.
‘Ryan had a significant injury and he won’t feature for the rest of the season,’ explained Mason. ‘Emerson is day by day now and hopefully he can help us before the end of the season.
‘We’re hopeful [Bissouma can play a part]. Some hurdles he’s got to overcome.’
Rodrigo Bentancur, meanwhile, is continuing to step up his recovery from the ACL injury he sustained in February against Leicester and has been seen on the bike machine at the club’s training ground, though Mason says it is too early to set a return date.
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