Spurs head coach, Nuno Espirito cursed his side’s “terrible” luck with injuries as they lost more players in their Europa Conference League draw at Rennes.
Nuno’s side traveled to Brittany without the injured Son Heung-min and Eric Dier, while Giovani lo Celso, Cristian Romero and Davinson Sanchez are still training in Croatia after they defied Premier League guidelines and traveled to South America for World Cup qualifiers last week.
With Dutch side Vitesse and Slovenia’s NS Mura joining Spurs and Rennes in Group G, the trip to Roazhon Park looked like the trickiest test for Nuno’s side in the group.
But, in a game where momentum swung throughout, Tottenham made a bright start and showed promise in the early stages though they needed a slice of luck to find an opening. Opened the scoring board was Moura’s low cross which was deflected into his own net by Rennes defender Loic Bade.
In the second half, Rennes had better chances as they took the lead in the 72 nd minute through a close-range Gaetan Laborde finish. But as they began to dominate chances, there were fresh injury fears for the Premier League side when Steven Bergwijn was forced off on the half hour mark after he appeared to aggravate the ankle injury which ruled him out of the defeat at Selhurst Park.
It went from worse to worst when Moura limped off early in the second half after a heavy challenge from Rennes’ second goal scorer Tait, leaving Spurs short of attacking options against a Rennes side who looked hungry for an upset.
When asked if their pair would be fit for Sunday’s Premier League game against Chelsea, Nuno replied, “painful, really bad. I cannot tell you. They are being taken care of by the medical department. But It’s been tough”.