Wed 15 December 2021, 19:27
Tottenham Hotspur“We have to be confident” is the message from Antonio Conte as we prepare to return to action at Leicester City on Thursday (7.30pm UK).
A number of positive COVID-19 tests in the squad resulted in the first team section of our training ground being temporarily closed last week, with planned fixtures against Stade Rennais (last Thursday) and Brighton & Hove Albion (Sunday) not going ahead as scheduled.
It means we haven’t played since beating Norwich City 3-0 on 5 December and with a heavily disrupted training programme in recent days, it’s naturally been tough for Antonio to prepare the players for action.
Nevertheless, ahead of our trip to the King Power Stadium to face a Leicester outfit who have had their own problems with illness of late, the Head Coach is maintaining an upbeat frame of mind.
“We have a difficult game, for sure, to play against Leicester,” he said, speaking to Spurs TV after training on Wednesday.
“Leicester is a good team, a good squad with a good manager, they did very well in the last few years, they won trophies, but we have to be confident because with the players that were available during the last week, we were working, we were working well and for sure we have the situation to have a good team and to try to have a good result against Leicester.
“About the players, some players are back in training yesterday and today, but I think that the big problem now is to allow them to recover well and to try to be fit as soon as possible. Other updates… about Romero, he is still injured, Giovani Lo Celso is back in training and we have a little problem with Sergio (Reguilon). He’s having training sessions but we don’t know if he’s 100 per cent fit for tomorrow’s game.”
Speaking about how the players have handled the need to work remotely following the temporary closure of Hotspur Way and the disruption to training caused by some of their peers having to self-isolate after testing positive, Antonio explained that we’ve been able to draw on our experiences from 2020 when the pandemic first struck and footballing activity was suspended for a couple of months.
“It’s a strange situation but we’ve lived it before,” he said. “We have experience in the past, the way that we’ve faced COVID. For sure, we’ve had to pay great attention for ourselves and for our families because we hope to continue to play and that the numbers of our people with COVID start to be less.
“For this reason, to pay more attention is helpful, not only for the players but for all the people.”
