London: English football club Tottenham Hotspurs’ head coach Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed that striker Clinton Njie is expected to be out of action until March. The forward underwent surgery last week after damaging ligaments during Spurs’ 4-1 Europa League victory against Monaco earlier this month.
“For Clinton it will be two months or two and a half months, three months,” Pochettino was quoted as saying on Wednesday. It is the latest setback for the Cameroonian, who joined on a five-year deal from French club Lyon in the summer but had to wait until September 17 to make his debut because of a hamstring problem.
Njie’s absence will further increase the striking burden on Harry Kane and it is not good news for Tottenham, who are fourth in the EPL standings with 29 points — nine short of league leaders Leicester City. But Pochettino still hasn’t lost hopes of a title charge.
“In football all is possible. The most important thing is belief that you can win every game and we are very young, we have a strong squad. We believe in ourselves and we keep working hard to try to win every game in a tough league, the most difficult in the world. In football everything can happen if you believe,” the coach said.
“When we started the season our aim is to move up in the table at the end of the season but we don’t want to set a limit. We only try to win every game. Today is good because we are fourth but the most important is end of season, if we arrive in the same position or higher.”
Pochettino’s side has only lost twice in the league in 17 games, despite having the youngest squad in the division — a fact the Argentine believes deserves greater credit.
“People don’t realise the effort we made and how our players work hard because we are the youngest squad in the Premier League. Sometimes they deserve more praise for the position they have. Maybe the team deserve more praise than we have so far,” he said.
