Dele Alli will miss Tottenham’s first game back against Manchester United tomorrow evening. This is because the Englishman was banned for one game after he mocked the coronavirus and a man of Asian descent.
The ban has, however, not impressed Jose Mourinho who questions why the 24-year-old was banned while other players who flouted lockdown rules were not similarly punished.
Manchester City’s Kyle Walker and Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish both broke lockdown rules when football was suspended because of the coronavirus but they both escaped bans and they played for their teams when football returned last night.
Mourinho, who will welcome back Harry Kane, Heung-min Son, and Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham website) for the game against his former side wasn’t pleased that Alli couldn’t get away with his off-field issue without a ban.
MORE: “Welcome To Spurs ” – These Fans Buzzing With Lyall Thomas Update
He insisted that the Englishman has worked very hard during the lockdown and that it was unfortunate that he won’t be playing the first game after the restart.
Mourinho said, as quoted by the Standard: “I can only tell you I feel very sorry that Dele is not playing. Again, I feel very very sorry that he’s not playing. He’s a player that works so so hard during all this period and he’s really frustrated that he cannot play the first match.
“I don’t want to say much more than I don’t think he deserves a one-match ban compared with wrong behaviours at much bigger dimensions that happened during this period without any consequences. But we were for such a long period without [Harry] Kane, [Heung-min] Son, [Moussa] Sissoko.
“Now we have Kane, Son, Sissoko, lose Dele and we’re not going to cry. We’re just going to try to forget that Dele’s not playing.”
Let’s be honest …. Hardly a great loss is it. Watching him stroll about was painful at best.