Tottenham manager has confirmed that Rodrigo Bentancur will be out for at least two months.
The Uruguayan midfielder was out with an injury since February and after a lot of hard work in rehab, he started his first game in months against Aston Villa.
But he only lasted 29 minutes. A terrible tackle from Matty Cash left him injured and he was forced to be taken off.
Subsequent scans revealed he had suffered a tear in his ankle ligament and will be out for around two months.
And Ange has confirmed the reports. He was speaking ahead of the City game and was asked how long Bentancur is going to be sidelined for.
He replied (via Football London):
“Yeah, not exact timeframes but a significant time. I guess similar type of injury, we’re still getting some information, but it’ll be well into early next year. A couple of months at least.”
He also revealed how hard the Uruguayan worked behind the scenes to get back to playing which makes the injury setback even more emotional for everyone.
He said:
“The biggest emotion you have is for him. I’ve only been here six months but even in that six months you see how hard they work to get back, especially him. A lot of it is a fairly lonely journey because you do the rehab on your own and you have to push yourself.
He’d done everything right. He had a good international break where he got back playing for his country and he started the [Aston Villa] game so well. With all that context you’re just gutted for him because of the person he is and what he’s gone through, but that’s unfortunately the challenges football sometimes throws up at you.”
Tottenham play Manchester City this weekend which is expected to be a tough outing for the Ange who is working with an extremely depleted squad.
Apart from Bentancur, he is going to be without 8 players including James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Richarlison, Manor Solomon, Pape Matar Sarr (doubt), and Ivan Perisic.
A win or even a draw in such circumstances will be huge for Spurs but a defeat will make it 4 consecutive losses.
