Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that Spurs defender Ashley Phillips will be on the sidelines for “probably a month” due to an ankle injury.
The 18-year-old Tottenham centre-back was injured on England Under-19 duty in midweek. He came off at half-time in the 7-1 win over Mexico.
Postecoglou, speaking to football.london ahead of Tottenham hosting Aston Villa in the Premier League, confirmed that Phillips joins the lengthy Spurs injury list.
“Young Ash Phillips picked up an ankle injury with the England team and he’s out for a little while,” he said. “We’re still assessing it but at least probably a month out.”
Things have gone completely pear-shaped for Tottenham on the personnel front in recent weeks.
As things stand, Spurs are set to be without nine first-team players due to injury and suspension. A tenth player – Pape Matar Sarr – is a doubt for the Villa game.
Phillips will be especially gutted that his injury has come at this time, when he probably would’ve had the best opportunity to stake a claim for a first-team spot.
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With Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero both out, there had been speculation regarding Phillips potentially making his Tottenham debut, maybe even starting for Spurs.
However, this has now had to be put on the backburner, with Phillips joining a host of Tottenham players in the treatment room.
Ashley Phillips training at ‘high level’ for Tottenham and will be ‘ready’ to start once back
Hopefully it’s just a minor setback and it won’t be long before the 18-year-old summer signing is back in action and attempting to stake a claim for senior game time.
Phillips is certainly no stranger to competitive senior football. When he joined Tottenham, he had already made 14 competitive appearances for Blackburn Rovers.
Tottenham teammate Dejan Kulusevski seems confident about the prospect of Phillips starting for the first team too.
The Sweden international told football.london in November: “Yeah, probably he is ready. It is the coach that decides that, but I think every player is unbelievable in training.
“Everybody is ready, everybody wants to play and it is so high level, the training. So, if he will be called, he will be ready.”