Tottenham Hotspur’s Erik Lamela is working his way back to fitness.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has told Football.London that winger Erik Lamela felt some pain after 20 minutes of the Under-23 clash with Chelsea on Saturday.
Spurs’ first team lost 2-0 away at Arsenal on Saturday afternoon, with Shkodran Mustafi and Alexis Sanchez finding the net to give the Gunners a derby day win.
Around the same time on Saturday afternoon, Tottenham’s Under-23’s were in action against Chelsea at Hotspur Way, though they also lost.
Tottenham’s youngsters and fringe players fell to a 3-2 defeat, as whilst Shayon Harrison and Kazaiah Sterling found the back of the net, Spurs couldn’t keep out the goals at the other end.
Whilst most Spurs fans will have been pre-occupied with the North London derby defeat, some supporters will have noticed that winger Erik Lamela featured for the Under-23’s.
The Argentinian wide man has been out injured over a year now, and after numerous setbacks, he is finally working his way back to fitness with playing time for the Under-23’s.
Now, manager Mauricio Pochettino has told Football.London that he was pleased to see Lamela play 60 minutes against Chelsea, but the winger did feel some pain after 20 minutes.
Pochettino added that it’s important to see how Lamela progresses in recent weeks, with the Spurs boss hopeful that he will be available for first-team selection.
“He played for the U23s and he played 60 minutes. After 20 minutes he started to feel something but that’s normal after a year,” said Pochettino. “You can train in two hours, but when you compete you feel different. We are happy with him because it’s important. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. But we hope he start to feel better and better and be ready to be selected in the first team,” he added.
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