Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed that it is “impossible” for Danny Rose to start for Tottenham in their Champions League round of 16 fixture against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday.
Rose suffered a shin injury in the 3-1 win over Leicester on Sunday, and now it seems like the left-back will have to make do with, at the very best, a place on the bench at Wembley this week.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Pochettino announced that Rose will also have a late fitness test to judge whether or not he will even be able to make the squad.
“It’s impossible for him to start from the beginning, we need to assess in the morning whether he will be on the bench,” he said, as quoted by Press Association journalist Jonathan Veal via his personal Twitter account.
Pochettino on Danny Rose: “It’s impossible for him to start from the beginning, we need to assess in the morning wether he will be on the bench.” #THFC #coys
— Jonathan Veal (@jonathandveal83) February 12, 2019
OPINION
What a huge blow for Tottenham that is. Rose has been a key player for the club this season, performing extremely well during the last couple of months while Ben Davies has been injured. It compiles more issues on Pochettino, who will now have to name either Jan Vertonghen or Kyle Walker-Peters to start at left-back against Borussia Dortmund. Lucien Favre has some dangerous attackers at his disposal, including Jadon Sancho, who is likely to rum amok against someone as inexperienced as Walker-Peters. Vertonghen will have the know-how on how to stop the England international, but he might lack the pace to be able to keep up with him. It might be best for Pochettino to play a back-five with Walker-Peters on the left and Vertonghen as the left-sided centre-back, that way they can double up on Sancho when needed. Hopefully Rose can at least make the bench and is able to help out in the second-half of the first leg if needed.