Antonio Conte has provided a team news update to journalists who have attended Tottenham Hotspur’s pre-Aston Villa press conference from Hotspur Way this afternoon.
Tottenham will be looking to begin 2023 with a victory when they welcome Unai Emery’s side to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on New Year’s Day and face a tough battle ahead to maintain their place in the top four of the Premier League table.
The north Londoners started slowly once again on Boxing Day at Brentford, conceding first for the ninth game in a row, and had to once again rely on an improved second half display to grind out a 2-2 draw.
Such is the protocol, the media are informed of the availability of the Spurs squad ahead of the clash against Villa, who have won three of their last five top flight outings.
Conte has revealed that while there is good news following the return of Cristian Romero to his plans, he has suffered an injury blow after Rodrigo Bentancur will undergo an MRI to further evaluate an issue which he picked up on international duty with Uruguay at the World Cup.
He told Football.London: “Romero is back and he’s available for the game against Aston Villa. Rodrigo, I think we have to wait, maybe today he is going to have an MRI to try to have an evaluation about his injury. For sure tomorrow against Villa, he’s not available. He had an injury in the World Cup and also the timing is more long than my expectation. This question is more for the medical department than me.”
(Photo by Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
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