Spurs team news ahead of Chelsea – Romero ‘very close’, Son out until February

Antonio Conte doesn’t expect to welcome any of the recently-sidelined players back for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final, second leg against Chelsea – although he had encouraging news on Cristian Romero when he spoke to the media this afternoon (Tuesday 11 January).

With Romero, Steven Bergwijn, Eric Dier and Heung-Min Son all missing for Sunday’s FA Cup win over Morecambe, the Head Coach confirmed that “we didn’t recover any players compared to the last game” at his pre-match press conference.

Furthermore, when asked during his latest exclusive interview with Spurs TV about whether he expected to welcome any of the players he rested against Morecambe back for our home clash with the Blues, he said: “Unfortunately we are arriving with some problems and I think it’s good to make the best decision because we have a couple of cases that if we want to risk (them) for tomorrow's game, we risk to lose players for a long period. I think in this moment it’s good to give the right time to recover for the players that are injured and at the same time, there is the possibility, the chance for the players that usually don’t play in the starting XI to show me they deserve more consideration.”

We trail 2-0 from last week’s first leg at Stamford Bridge, where Son was last in action. He missed the Morecambe game and Antonio clarified today that he’s not expected to return until after the winter break at the end of this month.

“The update on Sonny, for sure, we will have to wait until after the January international break (24 January – 2 February). It’s a muscular problem. I repeat, it was strange because he came off during the game (the first leg at Chelsea) with no problem, but the day after he felt a bit of pain, and he was injured. It’s a pity because you know very well the importance of this player for us.”

The boss had good news on defender Romero, though. He hasn’t played since picking up an injury on international duty for Argentina in November, but has now begun to be integrated back into training.

“Cristian is another player who is very close to coming back,” he said. “Today, he had a little part of a training session with us. He’s very close, very close to coming back. We are talking about another important player for us. We lost him for almost two months, and I think we faced this situation in best possible way because Cristian, for sure, is an important player for us and, despite this, the players who played showed to be good, they improved. For example, Davinson Sanchez, he’s improving a lot. Now, Cristian is very close to coming back and to being available.”

Kick-off at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday is at 7.45pm.