Tottenham Hotspur will be without star forward Son Heung-min until after the World Cup, after the South Korea international suffered a fractured eye socket during his side's 2-1 win against Marseille in the Champions League in midweek.
As such, the 30-year-old now faces a race against time to recover from surgery in time to feature for his country in Qatar later this month, further compounding Antonio Conte's side's attacking woes in the meantime with Richarlison also ruled out of their clash against Liverpool on Sunday due to a muscle strain, and Dejan Kulusevski unlikely to be able to start having only recently returned to light training.
Lucas Moura is therefore likely to partner club captain Harry Kane in a front two, with Conte bulking up his midfield area by bringing in Yves Bissouma alongside Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who have both scored injury-time winners in the past week.
Cristian Romero missed both wins against Bournemouth and Marseille in the past week due to a muscle strain and the Argentine defender is unlikely to be risked so close to the start of the World Cup, meaning Eric Dier may continue at right-sided centre-back in order to allow left-footers Clement Lenglet and Ben Davies - who both scored the equaliser in those victories - to complete Conte's back three.
Emerson Royal may be preferred at right wing-back ahead of Ryan Sessegnon to attempt to combat Andrew Robertson's intensity for the visitors down that flank, with Ivan Perisic offering an attacking outlet on the other side of the pitch.
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup: Lloris; Dier, Lenglet, Davies; Emerson, Bissouma, Bentancur, Hojbjerg, Perisic; Moura, Kane
Brett Curtis
