Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that he was forced to bring Richarlison off in Sunday's shock 2-1 Premier League loss to Leicester City due to injury.
The Brazil international made his first top-flight start of the season against the Foxes in place of the injured Dominic Solanke, who is set to miss six weeks due to a knee problem.
Richarlison had come off the bench to net a consolation in last weekend's 3-2 loss to Everton, and he had an early say in Sunday's game, heading home the opening goal from a Pedro Porro cross.
However, things soon went pear-shaped for Richarlison and Tottenham, as just five minutes after the restart, Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannouss turned the game on its head for the Foxes.
Spurs' desperate efforts for an equaliser were futile as they were condemned to their fourth Premier League defeat in a row, one that Richarlison was powerless to do anything about after his substitution on the 54-minute mark.
Postecoglou reveals groin problem for Richarlison
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Postecoglou's decision to swap Richarlison out for Mikey Moore led to a cacophony of boos from the home crowd, but the ex-Everton man was never expected to complete the full 90 minutes due to his recent fitness struggles.
The Tottenham boss admitted after the game that the substitution was not a pre-planned one, though, confirming that the striker had been suffering from a groin issue but wanted to try to play through the pain.
"He was feeling his groin. He should have come off at half-time but he wanted to give it another 10 minutes. I saw he wasn't running right so I had to take him off," Postecoglou replied.
Tottenham were already missing James Maddison, Djed Spence, Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner, Wilson Odobert and Solanke for Sunday's defeat, which saw Postecoglou become just the second Spurs manager to lose four straight Premier League games twice.
The Lilywhites remain in a lowly 15th place in the Premier League standings, just eight points clear of the relegation zone as they continue to search for their first top-flight success of 2025.
Is this the end for Postecoglou?
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Pinpointing the exact reasons for Tottenham's decline is a regular exercise under every manager of the Daniel Levy era, although Postecoglou has been going about his business under incredibly difficult circumstances.
The Spurs boss has been missing almost a full team of injured players for several weeks now, although there is an argument to be had that his style of play and training practices could be contributing to the fitness crisis.
The results and Premier League statistics are damning for Postecoglou, but his side are on the verge of the EFL Cup final, still competing for FA Cup glory and may yet finish in the top eight of the Europa League league phase table.
As a result, Postecoglou might have enough credit in the bank to avoid getting the chop, especially if Levy feels that there are a lack of both suitable and available candidates who can take over immediately.
However, the Tottenham manager almost certainly still has more fans than the wildly unpopular Levy, who was once again the target of vociferous protests at the end of Sunday's game.
Ben Knapton
