Tottenham Hotspur may have been handed an injury blow to Ivan Perisic at the weekend.
This has been suggested by Alasdair Gold, who has been speaking about the Croatian wing-back on his latest YouTube video following the Lilywhites’ win in north London.
Spurs added another three points to their tally against Bruno Lage’s side in the weekend’s early kick-off, in which Perisic played a big role in securing the points.
The Croatian wing-back was handed his first start for the club, having come off the bench against Chelsea to provide Harry Kane with the assist to snatch a point late on at Stamford Bridge last weekend (via Transfermarkt).
And he did exactly the same on Saturday against Wolves, providing Kane with the assist for the winning goal – but Gold did notice a potentially concerning moment.
He said: “Obviously, the only thing I noticed, and some people obviously noticed afterwards, that Perisic did appear to be holding his leg at times, I think in the last five minutes or so.
“And then when he came off, a physio went over to check on him as well. He kind of hiked up his shorts like they do on that side while he was checking that out.”
TIF Thoughts on Gold’s comments…
Perisic arrived at Spurs with a slight injury concern, which has potentially played a role in his gradual integration into Conte’s starting XI.
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The Italian manager has already spoken openly about Perisic’s fitness, suggesting he is not the player he saw during his days at Inter:
“I hope to recover him quickly because he’s not the Perisic that I know, but this type of player can help us a lot, and his impact on the game was important,” Conte said.
However, if Perisic can provide two assists in just three appearances whilst struggling for fitness, we will be intrigued to see what he can do when he does reach full fitness.
But this will certainly be a blow if Perisic has picked up an injury concern – not only for his own progression, but also for Conte’s squad rotation, with the games set to become more frequent in the coming weeks.