Tottenham Hotspur’s Belgian defender has been ruled out until at least Christmas.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has told the London Evening Standard that Toby Alderweireld is unlikely to play again until the New Year because of a hamstring injury.
The news is a huge blow to Spurs ahead of Saturday’s North London derby with Arsenal, and for their Premier League title challenge as they suffer badly when the Belgian defender is not playing.
Since joining from Atletico Madrid in 2015, Alderweireld has missed 20 Tottenham games in all competitions.
Spurs have won 10 of them, giving them a win percentage of 50%, compared to 58% when he does play.
Even more alarmingly, Spurs lose nearly a third of the games for which the 28-year-old is absent.
They have lost 30% off their matches without him, compared to only 17% of the 103 games that he has played.
If that record continues over Tottenham’s 10 league games before the end of 2017, they will almost certainly be too far behind Manchester City to get back in the title race when Alderweireld returns.
Eric Dier is likely to drop into defence to deputise for Alderweireld, but it is the former Ajax centre-half who has been integral to Tottenham’s division-best defensive record over the last two campaigns.
Losing him for such a sustained period is going to test Tottenham’s depth and character.
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