Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino frustrated after Roberto Martinez breaks news of Jan Vertonghen injury lay-off

Frustrated: Pochettino said Martinez should have called him before going public
AFP/Getty Images
Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP5 October 2018

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has been left frustrated by comments from Roberto Martinez on Jan Vertonghen's hamstring injury and says the Belgium coach should have called him before going public.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday morning, Martinez said Vertonghen is expected to miss the next two Belgium camps – which would rule him out until at least mid-November – after suffering a hamstring injury in Spurs' 2-0 win at Huddersfield last weekend.

The centre-half collided with striker Laurent Depoitre after 15 minutes but played on until half-time, when he was replaced. The 31-year-old will have a second scan on Monday to determine the full extent of the injury, with Pochettino describing it as "not good", and the Argentine called for better communication with national teams ahead of another international break.

"It's so difficult to communicate with all the national teams," Pochettino said before Saturday's Premier League match against Cardiff. "Look at now: before my press conference you knew about the Vertonghen situation because Roberto told the media in Belgium before us.

"But in the end it's our player, our Tottenham player, our Tottenham employee. We arrived here and we needed to explain. It's difficult. They need to call us. They need to call and ask us. If they call us, we are more than open to talk – and give our opinion. But if they don't call, our door is always open to receive [them]."

Asked why he could not call Martinez or England manager Gareth Southgate to discuss his players' fitness, Pochettino said: "The natural thing, if they have some doubt, is to call us. Not us calling them. Because the players are here every day and in the end our job is day-by-day and for them it's every month.

"And they have a little bit more time than us to be interested in the player and call us. I don't want to create a problem but that is the normal behaviour – that the national team calls you. Not that you call and say, 'Be careful with this or that player'. Then it's like you don't want the player to go to the national team."

Pochettino's assistant Jesus Perez revealed that Vertonghen felt he could play on at the John Smith's Stadium – believing he had only suffered a dead leg – before assessment at the interval revealed the seriousness of the injury.

"We asked him and we thought he could play on," Perez said. "It's unusual to get a knock in your hamstring. That's why he was playing on. He was assessed at half-time and as soon as all the information was to prevent any further damage, he was off.

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"Jan, since he arrived from the World Cup, played all the matches," the Spaniard continued. "So we planned last week – along with Harry Kane, Tripps [Kieran Trippier], Danny Rose – [for him] to have no competition during last week [when Spurs played Watford mid-week in the Carabao Cup] and prepare with specialist training sessions, so he had an unbelievable week.

"But unfortunately during the game, he got a knock in his hamstring with the big striker Depoitre and he was unbalanced and stretched his leg, and in that action he injured the hamstring and then carried on playing for almost half an hour because he thought it was just a knock.

"Now we had one scan with him and another scan on Monday to know exactly how severe the injury is at the moment. It could take a while because it’s not a normal injury, like striking the ball or sprinting. It was in a stretch and that kind of injury needs to be assessed properly."

Sidelined: Jan Vertonghen
Getty Images

Pochettino added: "And one component that's important: the adrenaline when you're playing football is so high. And you don't realise. You run under stress, competing. And when you stopping running, you feel it and it's difficult to stop. But it's difficult to assess during the game because he didn't realise how it was and he only felt a big knock from the striker and he thought it was a dead leg.

"We’ll see because it was not a good injury. I think Jesus can explain properly in English. Of course we’re so disappointed with that but we’ll see if it’s six weeks or less – we cannot guess. We hope as soon as possible it can be fixed."

Spurs are also without Mousa Dembele (thigh), Serge Aurier (thigh), Dele Alli (hamstring) and Christian Eriksen (abdomen) for the visit of the Bluebirds to Wembley.

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