Mauricio Pochettino 'concerned' with Erik Lamela's long injury absence as Tottenham forward faces pivotal scan

Mauricio Pochettino admitted that he has grown “concerned” about Erik Lamela’s continued absence, almost three months after he last appeared for Tottenham Hotspur.

The Argentine midfielder is undergoing treatment on a hip injury in Rome and is due to have a scan tomorrow which will determine whether or not he needs surgery. Lamela was initially pencilled in to return to London later this month, but progress has been slow, prompting Friday’s scan.

It has been a difficult season for Lamela, who had to return to Argentina in December after a serious family emergency. When he returned he struggled to get back into the rhythm of recuperation in London, which is why Pochettino allowed him to work with the Italian doctors he knew when he played for Roma. But if Lamela does not make progress then his return to London will be further delayed. He last played for Spurs on 25 October last year, in the EFL Cup against Liverpool.

“Tomorrow he will have a scan,” Pochettino said today. “It’s still difficult to give the time for him to come back. We need to wait and see. There’s still some problems. We need to wait. We are starting to be concerned and worried about him because he has been out for nearly three months and the situation is not moving on.”

Pochettino was more optimistic about the recovery of Jan Vertonghen from the ankle ligament injury he sustained on Saturday. Vertonghen was initially feared to be out for at least two months, which could delay his Spurs return until 1 April, after the March international break. But Pochettino sounded a confident note about his absence today.

“Jan is ok, very positive, we are pushing him a lot,” Pochettino said. “We expect him to be out for less than what was, in the first moment, our idea. I don’t want to set a time limit but I think it’s positive and if your mind is positive you can recover early. It is good, because in the first moment it looked really bad, and the doctor thinks it’s not as bad as we thought at the beginning.”

Spurs go to Manchester City in great form on Saturday and Pochettino said they are “1000 miles ahead” of where they were when he took over the club in 2014. “I think if we go backward to the first season, and we now start to see, analyse and judge, I think we are 1,000 miles ahead of then,” Pochettio said. “In football it’s about belief, faith, working hard, and it’s true that we have moved on the club in two and a half years.”

“That was our expectation – to push and move the club quickly. Sometimes it’s not possible but it’s true that now we are in a very good period and I think all that is related with Tottenham is exciting.”