Bergvall injury leads Frank to call his Spurs side ‘cursed’ as the injury crisis continues to plague the club day-by-day.
‘We are cursed’: Thomas Frank fears Bergvall faces long injury layoff for Tottenham.
After confirming that Lucas Bergvall would be sidelined for a long time, Thomas Frank believes Tottenham is “cursed” with injuries.
After suffering an ankle injury during Tuesday’s Champions League victory over Borussia Dortmund, the 19-year-old midfielder will miss Saturday’s Premier League trip to Burnley. The club is concerned that he may be sidelined for several months.
This season, Bergvall has sustained 19 injuries at Tottenham, which is tied for the most with Arsenal, Chelsea, and Leeds. With 625 injuries, Spurs have lost players for the second-highest number of days, only behind Newcastle’s 640.
Mohammed Kudus, Rodrigo Bentancur, Richarlison, Ben Davies, and Bergvall have all suffered major injuries in their last five games, leaving Frank without eight first-team players. Although Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison haven’t featured all season, the team did announce on Thursday that they have signed Brazilian full-back Souza for £13 million from Santos.
Better news for Frank: midfielder João Palhinha should be fit to play Burnley, and Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie, and Xavi Simons all emerged from the victory over Dortmund uninjured, relieving some of the strain on the head coach.
“It seems like we are cursed or something like that,” Frank said, “but injuries are a part of football. We keep being very unlucky with injuries, and it looks like Lucas could be a longer one. He’s being assessed and we will know more in the next couple of days.”
“In my third year in the Premier League with Brentford we had a horrendous year and it impacted on the season,” he said. “We always look what we can do to avoid it. How can we make sure we do the maximum to get players back as quickly as possible? There are a lot of moving parts, the match schedule, the amount of games, but we’re not the only club struggling with injuries. Overall I’m very happy with medical and performance departments. We’ve made progress made this year.”