Thomas Frank shares message to Tottenham fans as Cristian Romero injury blow confirmed
Thomas Frank has confirmed Cristian Romero will miss Tottenham’s Champions League clash with Monaco on Wednesday.
Romero pulled out of the squad ahead of Tottenham’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on Sunday.
Spurs captain Romero is joined by Destiny Udogie in the Tottenham treatment room in what is a massive blow for Frank.
It has been suggested that Romero could be absent for Tottenham for anywhere between a few days to a month.
Frank provided a further update on Romero‘s injury at his pre match press conference on Tuesday evening.
Thomas Frank shares updates on Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie
Romero started Tottenham‘s first seven Premier League matches prior to being struck down injured, while Udogie was used five times in all.
It was already known that neither would feature against Monaco, but Frank has now shared an update – of sorts – on the pair.
Asked about Romero, Frank told reporters: “It’s an adductor strain. We will assess it more this week before we confirm any timeframe.”
Frank then added, when asked if supporters should be worried: “No I don’t think so, it’s a strain.”
On Udogie, he added: “The latest is that he got that knee irritation after international duty. We are assessing and working very hard to get on top of it. We’ll know more day by day.”
Frank effectively gave little away, other than to say Spurs would keep an eye on both injuries.
However, Frank’s positivity with regards to Spurs fans not having to fear Romero’s absence is a little misguided if the data is anything to go by.
As per FBref, Romero ranks in the top nine per cent of all centre-backs across Europe’s top five leagues over the past 12 months for interceptions, averaging 1.66 per 90 minutes.
The 1.89 tackles her averages per 90, meanwhile, ranks him only slightly lower among the top 12 per cent of centre-backs in that category.
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Romero stats speak for themselves at Spurs
Romero rightly ranks among Fabio Paratici’s top Tottenham signings and any game he misses is a blow to Frank and Spurs.
Further to those stats above, Romero has won 1.43 defensive third tackles in the Premier League this season, which only Joao Palhinha can better among Spurs players.
Romero’s 66.7 per cent tackle percent rate is also the best among Tottenham defenders, with only Palhinha (70.4 per cent) and Mathys Tel (75 per cent) and Wilson Odobert (100 per cent) ahead of him.
He also has a massively impressive 89.5 per cent pass success rate this season, while no outfield Spurs player can better his progressive passing distance of 2,753, despite missing a game.
It is that latter stat that shows there is far more to Romero’s game than just defending, and it is why Spurs will miss him for however long he is out.
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