Ange Postecoglou says Pape Matar Sarr “shouldn’t have played” in Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 home defeat by Leicester City.
Sarr, 22, missed Thursday’s 3-2 Europa League win over Hoffenheim with an injury but was restored to the starting line-up for Sunday’s game against Leicester.
The Senegal midfielder lasted 54 minutes before being withdrawn alongside Richarlison for Sergio Reguilon and Mikey Moore.
Tottenham have an extensive injury list, with Djed Spence, Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Brennan Johnson, Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner, Dominic Solanke and James Maddison all unavailable for the Leicester match.
“I’ve said all along, the players need help and I’ve also said the club are working hard in that area to try to alleviate some of those problems, because Pape Sarr shouldn’t have played today,” head coach Postecoglou said in his post-match news conference. “He obviously wasn’t fit.
“The players are going out there and giving everything they can because we can’t call off games. We’ve got another game in three days’ time that these players have to front up for.
“The injury situation will ease and I’m confident they will sort of help us. Even one more player coming in, just in the short term will give us an opportunity, at least to navigate these last 10 days, two weeks, of what’s been a really hard slog for this group of players.”
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Spurs were 2-1 down when the Sarr and Richarlison went off, with quickfire second-half goals from Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannouss putting the visitors ahead after the Brazilian’s 33rd-minute opener.
Asked to explain Richarlison’s substitution, Postecoglou replied: “He was feeling his groin, he should have come off at half-time but he wanted to give another 10 minutes. I could see he wasn’t running well so that is why I took him off.”
Tottenham return to Europa League action on Thursday when they host Elfsborg before travelling to Brentford next Sunday. They are 15th in the Premier League and have not won in the league since beating Southampton 5-0 on December 15, a run of seven games.
(Michael Regan/Getty Images)
