Ange Postecoglou has been left sweating over the fitness of Tottenham captain Son Heung-min after he limped off during the defeat to West Ham.
Spurs’ winless run extended to five games on Thursday night as the Irons came from behind to win 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Cristian Romero, in his first game back from suspension, gave Spurs an early lead and while they were the better team for much of the match, second-half goals from Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse sent the three points to East London instead.
Just one point from their last five matches – having lead in all of them – is a very worrying sign for Postecoglou and to make matters worse, Son is now an injury worry.
The prolific forward limped off the pitch in the 88th minute as he was replaced by youngster Alejo Veliz.
Asked about the South Korea international in his post-match press conference, a deflated Postecoglou simply said: ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure.’
This current run has seen Tottenham slip from league leaders and potential title contenders to fifth in the table – level on points with the much maligned Manchester United.
Qualifying for the top four could well be a struggle now, especially if Son joins a very crowded treatment room that currently includes James Maddison, Micky van de Ven and Rodrigo Bentancur.
‘Deserved better or not means nothing, we lost the game. It is unacceptable,’ Son told Amazon Prime Sport post-match.
‘You are winning. Losing that game I think is unacceptable. As a player [we] should take responsibility.
‘They are tough to play against but we knew what was coming. 1-0 is not enough, you have to try and win the game. The fans do not deserve this.
‘When you go 1-0 up early you should bring more energy and play with more energy but we didn’t and that is why we lost. When you have the chances to kill the game you have to play better. We lost the game, we have to move on and bounce back.
‘Attacking players should feel responsibility because we had chances to kill the game. I know it is very sad for the fans and disappointed. As a group we want to bounce back as soon as possible.’
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