Tottenham Hotspur sit top of the table this international break, with a return to action on Saturday. They’ll resume their Premier League campaign with a trip to Selhurst park to play Crystal Palace. We have some early team news for that clash, and unfortunately, it isn’t good.
It looks like they might be without a couple of key players when they wage this London derby. Forward Son Heung-Min, who had a breakout season last year, has sustained a calf-injury while on international duty with South Korea.
The 29-year-old goal scorer won’t play a part in South Korea’s upcoming World Cup qualifier against Lebanon this week. He play the entirety of South Korea’s goalless draw with Iraq on Thursday.
A statement from the Korean Football Association reads: “Heung-min felt uncomfortable in his right calf after training on the 6th, and as a result of the test, he was excluded from the entry to protect the player due to a right calf muscle sprain.”
Elsewhere the two Tottenham Argentines, Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso, are set to be fined by the club due to unauthorized travel.
This is according to an ESPN report which states:
“The Premier League had previously announced a decision supported by all 20 clubs that players would not be released for matches held in countries currently on the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 red list due to the need for a 10-day hotel quarantine period upon their return to England.”
Having traveled to a country where the virus case numbers are more problematic than the rest of the world means a mandatory quarantine and isolation, i.e. unavailable for the next match or two.
In other words, it shows a level of selfishness inherent in the individual, as he is now letting down the entire team.
That’s because it’s not just the games missed due to isolation, it’s the potential to then miss additional contests as the player could then have to recover match fitness.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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