Harry Redknapp has this morning announced that Gareth Bale is unlikely to figure for Spurs again this season following the ankle injury sustained in the 1-1 draw with Blackpool on Sunday. In addition, Spurs will go into their second fixture of the gameweek at Eastlands tomorrow night with doubts over the fitness of Luka Modric who picked up a hip injury.
Bale’s injury is undoubtedly a major blow to Tottenham’s chances of earning the three points they need to claw back City’s advantage in the race for fourth place. Talking to press this morning, Redknapp’s prognosis on Bale’s injury was far from positive…
“He’s going for a scan, we’ll have to wait and see but it looks like he’s done his ankle ligaments…It was a bad ankle knock. I wouldn’t think he would play this season, it’ll keep him out now. It’s badly swollen so we’ll just wait and see what the damage is.”
In addition, the Spurs boss has concerns over the availability of playmaker Luka Modric. He is struggling with a hip problem and arguably, should he fail to make it, would be a bigger loss to the Spurs cause. The Croatian has been in outstanding form of late – he picked up the assist for Jermain Defoe’s eqauliser on Sunday but, more significantly, in the Fantasy Premier League game, Modric has amassed an impressive 13 Bonus Points over his last 8 league outings.
Modric picked up almost 40,000 new FPL owners going into Tottenham’s double gameweek, increasing his ownership to 4.5%. As for Bale, he gathered over 63,000 new owners last week; those managers will now be faced with finding a replacement for Tottenham’s final two matches at Liverpool and at home to Birmingham.
Niko Kranjcar is likely to benefit from Bale’s absence and start in the Tottenham midfield against City. Should Modric fail to make it, and with Jermaine Jenas nursing a thigh injury, Rafael Van der Vaart may be forced into a deeper central midfield role which may restrict his potential.
Bad news all round for Fantasy Managers anticipating big returns from their Tottenham contingent in tomorrow night’s clash.
