Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero did not play in the 4-3 win over Leeds United because of an injury.
The 24-year-old will be heading to the World Cup with Argentina and former Arsenal star and popular pundit Ian Wright believes that Romero did not want to play against Leeds.
Wright believes that the Spurs star is not pushing himself so that he can avoid any unnecessary injuries against Leeds ahead of the World Cup.
He said on his podcast: “For me, now it’s very difficult because they still have to play games. That’s the biggest worry. I don’t know how I’d deal with that, I’d probably just like Romero at Tottenham, he’s jumped on Harry Kane and said ‘I’m fatigued, I’m fatigued as well.’ I would not want to be playing any football before that at a normal World Cup you have a couple of weeks where you’re not doing anything.”
The World Cup is undoubtedly the biggest event in the game and it is understandable that players like Romero are keen to play in it with their nations.
However, his absence has been a problem for his club. Tottenham have looked vulnerable at the back in his absence and they barely managed to scrape a win over Leeds on Saturday.
Tottenham will be hoping to challenge for the major trophies this season and they need their key players fit and firing throughout the season.
Having Romero on the sidelines weakens their squad.
The World Cup is set to begin next week and it will be interesting to see how Romero performs for Argentina. The South American giants are one of the favourites to win the competition.