Tottenham defender Cristian Romero has been forced off with an injury during the Premier League clash against Aston Villa. The Argentine international left the pitch early in the Carabao Cup clash against Manchester City because of fatigue.
“Romero felt something at half-time, felt a bit tight,” Ange Postecoglou said after the game. “I was going to take him off at half-time, but he was pretty insistent on starting (the second half), but after the game started, my gut was telling me after losing Micky, we couldn’t afford to lose Cuti as well. So, we took him off.
As mentioned, the Spurs boss had already lost Micky van de Ven to a hamstring issue earlier this week and now his centre-back partner could also be facing a spell out of the team. Following a foul on Morgan Rogers, where Romero was booked, he stayed down and appeared to suffer quite the impact to his foot.
As he received treatment, it was clear he was in some discomfort with the decision made for him to be replaced by Ben Davies. Understandably annoyed, Romero threw one his boots at the floor before heading down the tunnel.
Given Van de Ven is expected to miss the next few games at least, it was no surprise that minimal risk were taken over Romero especially when also factoring in the midweek issue he picked up. Unfortunately for Postecoglou though, it presents a huge problem in defence.
This time last season, he also lost both of his first-choice centre-backs for three games after that disastrous 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in which Spurs were reduced to nine men all while Van de Ven and James Maddison both picked up injuries.
Just before Romero’s withdrawal, Postecoglou opted to bring Son Heung-min off despite the fact he had just set up Brennan Johnson for the equaliser to cancel out Morgan Rogers’ opener. However, given the issues he has faced, it was a smart decision to replace him.
Richarlison, who came on for the South Korea international, was later taken off after appearing to pick up a hamstring injury. His replacement was James Maddison and the Tottenham midfielder scored deep into added time to round off a superb 4-1 victory following a Dominic Solanke brace.
