Ange Postecoglou is hopeful Pape Sarr and Alejo Veliz did not suffer serious injuries in Tottenham's scrappy 3-1 win over Bournemouth on New Year's Eve.

Sarr opened the scoring but was forced off on 32 minutes with a hamstring problem and his participation in the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal is now in doubt.

Substitute Veliz hobbled off in stoppage-time, leaving Spurs to finish the game with 10 men because Postecoglou had already made all five changes and left the stadium on crutches and with his right leg in a brace. Both young players were in tears.

Second-half goals from Heung-min Son and Richarlison earned Spurs a hard-fought win, which moved them to within a point of fourth-placed Arsenal and three short of leaders Liverpool.

"Pape felt his hamstring and he's emotional because he wants to go away with his national team," Postecoglou said.

"It's a big tournament for them.

"It's kind of the way our season has gone.

"He was so good again early in the game, apart from his goal, and then he gets an injury.

"Disappointing for him but I am hoping it is not too serious and he can still go away and contribute to his country.

"Alejo was in a lot of pain and we'd already done our substitutions so we were trying to get it out to him to just lay down so we can get him off, but it just shows the character of the boy because he knew we had no more substitutions and he just wanted to keep going," Postecoglou added: "I'm not sure the extent of what he's done but we'll find out."

While Veliz was receiving treatment, Postecoglou furiously clashed with the Bournemouth bench and the Australian and Cherries coach Shaun Cooper were both sown yellow cards.

The visitors were given a lifeline when Alex Scott scored with six minutes of normal time to play and appeared to believe Spurs were time wasting.

"I was fine. We were just wishing each other happy new year!" Postecoglou explained.

"It's alright. Just a little bit of emotion in the game. I was more concerned with Alejo because we were kind of trying to get him off the field, and apart from my physically going on the pitch and dragging him off he wasn't really going to go down.

"So we were just shouting at him and I think the Bournemouth staff thought, I don't know what they thought, maybe that we were trying to make a substitution but we knew we had none. It was just about getting him off."