Injury-ravaged Tottenham hit by sickness bug ahead of crucial Newcastle clash

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has been dealt another selection problem with a sickness bug running through his squad this week.

Spurs were already set to be without nine players for Saturday’s visit of Newcastle after Destiny Udogie suffered a hamstring injury in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Wolves and Rodrigo Bentancur received his fifth yellow card of the Premier League season.

However, Postecoglou will also have to make a late call on a handful of players who were unable to train before Newcastle make the trip to north London.

“It looks around the six-week mark for him,” Postecoglou said of Udogie.

“Obviously we lose Bentancur suspended. None of the injured ones are kind of back yet and we had a bit of an illness running through the squad as well.

“So, a few missing training, but that’s alright. We’ll be OK.”

Postecoglou acknowledged the need for 12th-placed Spurs to get back on track after four defeats from their last six league fixtures, but they will face one of the in-form teams in the division in Newcastle.

Newcastle were 12th at the start of December, but four consecutive wins has them fifth and firmly in the race for Champions League qualification.

Tottenham have at least had a rare clear midweek to recharge after a busy December where they played nine matches, which included five fixtures across 14 days.

“I guess it helps but it is not going to totally refuel the tank in terms of where we want to be because we’re still dealing with a small number of players,” Postecoglou added.

“Again we’re going into a really busy period, January is massively busy for us with big games and it will not be long before it banks up again, but it was good for the players to have a couple of days.

“As much mentally as anything else to