Mauricio Pochettino’s press conference today was dominated by talk of more injuries. One player who was brought up, having totally fallen off the radar since Christmas Eve, when he injured his hamstring, is Lesley Ugochukwu.
It was reported as a 6 week injury back then, but here we are almost 4 months later and he’s nowhere to be seen. Pochettino’s update gave us some indication that the summer signing is on the way back, but as ever it was pretty vague and not very positive either:
“Right now, he is doing his recovery. We will see in a few weeks whether he can be again involved in the training session with the first-team. But it is day by day we are assessing these guys,” the coach explained.
We’re not surprised that Pochettino was asked about the Frenchman at this juncture. After missing a month the 20 year old appeared to be rushed back for that game against Wolves on Christmas Eve, where he lasted just an hour.
Poor timing again
The fact that Ugochukwu could be back in a few weeks is especially painful because of how useful he would have been in recent weeks. Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Conor Gallagher have all been totally run into the ground because of a lack of other options in midfield (at least, options that Pochettino is willing to try). That has now led to Enzo picking up a minor injury issue meaning he will miss Monday night’s game.
If Ugochukwu were fit, he would be able to slot right into the starting team for that game. In fact, if he were fit we would not have had to use Enzo as much, and the Argentine would probably be available himself.
By the time he is back, even on the most optimistic timescale, the season will effectively be over.
