Football
Dan Kilpatrick, Tottenham Correspondent 7y

Jan Vertonghen injury looks bad - Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino

LONDON -- Jan Vertonghen will be assessed on Sunday or Monday after the Tottenham defender suffered suspected ankle ligament damage against West Brom, and Mauricio Pochettino admits the injury "looks very bad."

Vertonghen turned on his left ankle after 65 minutes of Spurs' dominant 4-0 victory at White Hart Lane and appeared in considerable pain as he was helped off the pitch, and replaced by Ben Davies.

Spurs manager Pochettino said the injury looks serious but added that there was no need for Spurs to enter the transfer market this month for another defender.

"It looks very bad. We feel very disappointed, it is a situation you never like to happen," Pochettino told a postmatch news conference.

"It looks very bad but we need to wait a little bit -- tomorrow or Monday, we will be able to assess it better. His ankle is badly [swollen]. You can see in the game that Ben Davies can play [there] and I think we have plenty of players, not to move in the market. We do not need another [defender]."

Harry Kane scored a brilliant hat trick, and Gareth McAuley deflected Christian Eriksen's shot into his own net, as Spurs beat the Baggies at home for the first time since 2012, ending a sequence of three 1-1 draws with Tony Pulis' side.

It was the fourth time Kane has scored a treble for the club, taking him to 13 league goals this season, and comes a week after the 22-year-old became a father for the first time. He also became the fastest player to reach 60 goals in Premier League history.

"We are very delighted for him. It was very nice, a very good week for him. He is a dad and has scored three goals today. I think it was a good way to finish the week for him," Pochettino said.

"I don't believe that he will change. It is true that he has not yet realised that his life has completely changed, it is a different life.

"He won't change because he is very mature and his wife is amazing and understands what he needs.

"The first 45 minutes was fantastic, it was wonderful football."

Pochettino added: "We can feel very happy with the performance, the players played very well against a very difficult team. I think after Chelsea it was a big challenge to keep the momentum and show that we are mature enough to fight for big things and today was a very good example of that.

"We need to move on and try to fight but now we have more believe. We are much better than last season. We are showing that we have learnt a lot from last season, we are more mature. Today we did not concede a goal.

"I think the performance was brilliant. In all the games we always change small things to try to improve. Now we are looking at Manchester City [next Saturday] and that is the most important game."

Asked about impressive midfield duo Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama, Pochettino added: "It was a great performance from both. They were key today. It is important to have that balance, they were in control without the ball but in possession as well, they knew what they needed to do."

West Brom had not lost at White Hart Lane since 2012 but failed to make an impact in the early kickoff, with Tony Pulis conceding his side were not up to beating a Tottenham side fighting for the Premier League title.

"When you come here you have to be 100 per cent on it, physically and mentally and we weren't," he said. "When you play against such a good team like Tottenham they punish you.

"I am taking nothing away from the players. They have been nothing but brilliant this year, we have given everyone a game but today we were off it and they punished us. They deserve all the credit.

"I said at half-time that if we scored a goal at any time in the second half then there is pressure on them but that third goal was one of four really poor goals we conceded and that just killed the game for us."

Information from Press Association Sport was used in this report.

^ Back to Top ^