‘His feelings are not the best’: Mourinho suggests Spurs man won’t play on Thursday – originally posted on Sportslens.com
Jose Mourinho confirmed in his pre-match press conference yesterday that he will make changes to his side ahead of Tottenham’s Europa League clash on Thursday.
Spurs will face Dinamo Zagreb in the Round of 16 clash and Mourinho has hinted that he will make full advantage of the squad rotation. The Spurs boss has confirmed that he will field a strong side, but there will be changes.
One player who will not be playing is Giovani Lo Celso.
The Argentine has suffered a minor setback in his return to fitness and is not completely fit to play on Thursday.
Lo Celso has not played for Spurs since he was forced off with a hamstring injury in the 2-0 defeat to Leicester in mid-December.
He returned to training last month and there were suggestions that he could feature in the Europa League clash as well as for the North London derby on March 14.
However, Mourinho has now confirmed that Lo Celso is having “some back pain” and he is not training “the way he was doing”.
“Gio is not ready but it’s nothing to do with his previous important injury, from which he’s totally recovered,” said Mourinho.
“But with his accumulation of work his feelings are not the best at the moment, a little bit of some back pain so he’s had to stop working the way he was doing. So not for this match.”
Mourinho could drop Gareth Bale for this game as well.
The Welshman has scored six times in as many matches but he could be rested against the Croatian side having played three league matches last week.
In other news, Jurgen Klopp has showered heaps of praise on Nathaniel Phillips for his outstanding performance against RB Leipzig.