Spurs suffer "freak" injury blow ahead of Southampton clash, Conte should be gutted - opinion

Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt a gutting injury blow on the eve of the new Premier League season…

According to football.london reporter Alasdair Gold, midfielder Oliver Skipp is set to miss the start of the 2022/23 campaign with a fresh problem after he picked up what has been described as a “freak” injury at Hotspur Way.

“Here’s an update on Oliver Skipp’s freak training ground injury and the recovery timeline for the young Spurs midfielder,” he tweeted alongside an accompanying article.

“Skipp’s injury is minor, but it’s just unfortunate that it also caused that hairline fracture rather than just being the rather gruesome cut. That increases him from simply being a doubt for Saturday to needing to take a fortnight or so more to ensure the heel bone settles down,” he added in another tweet.

This will come as a gutting blow to manager Antonio Conte as it leaves him with a tough decision heading into Saturday’s encounter with Southampton. He’ll want to kickstart the new season with a win and they will have to do so without a key player in Skipp.

Gold claims that the England U21 international jumped for an aerial challenge with a teammate during training but said player fell awkwardly and left a deep cut in the midfielder’s foot from the stud impact, as well as a hairline fracture in his heel.

It was so gruesome that other players had to look away after witnessing it.

football.london also believe that Skipp was labelled as one of the top two fittest squad members throughout pre-season by coaching staff, reacting favourably to Conte’s stern and rigorous training methods.

This claim would have surely meant that the Italian saw him as a starter and we know from last season, that the former Chelsea boss is a huge, huge fan