Tottenham Hotspur forward ruled out of Liverpool Carabao Cup semi-final second leg
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou revealed Timo Werner will be out for the next few weeks and therefore will not be available for Spurs ’ Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool.
Tottenham head to Anfield on 6 February and will hope to secure its place in March’s final at Wembley. A controversial Lucas Bergvall goal in the semi-final first leg means Spurs will travel to Anfield with a 1-0 advantage.
But the north London club will be without Werner for that game after the German sustained a hamstring injury last weekend. It prevented him playing in the midweek Premier League defeat at Arsenal and Postecoglou provided a further update on Friday.
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“He had a scan, he has a hamstring tweak, so he'll be out for three to four weeks,” the ex-Celtic boss explained.
With the semi-final less than three weeks away, Werner will be forced to sit the game out, along with matches against Everton, Hoffenheim, Leicester City, Elfsborg and Brentford.
Meanwhile, there was better injury news on Friday with Postecoglu revealing Fraser Forster returned to training this week. Injuries have been a huge issue for Spurs this season and Yves Bissouma and Brennan Johnson are doubts for this weekend’s trip to Goodison Park.
In addition to Wener, Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie will miss the Liverpool semi-final, but Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur and Wilson Odobert - all of whom are currently injured - could be back in time for 6 February.
As for Liverpool, it only has one real injury issue with Joe Gomez struggling with a hamstring problem. Diogo Jota is a minor doubt for this weekend’s Premier League game at Brentford but there’s no long-term concern with the Portuguese forward’s availability.
While Tottenham leads at the halfway stage of one semi-final tie, it’s Newcastle United who is ahead in the other last-four encounter. The Magpies beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates in the first leg and are heavy favorites to progress to the final.
Incredibly, the north-east side has never won the EFL Cup, while Arsenal’s last win came in 1993. Spurs’ most recent triumph was in 2008, while Liverpool, the competition’s most successful side, is the reigning Carabao Cup champion.
