Pochettino casts doubts on Ben Davies playing vs. Real Madrid

Ben Davies missed Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth today with an unspecified illness. That wasn’t really a problem, per se — Davies has been kind of run into the ground already in the early goings of the season, what with being the only healthy Tottenham left back and all. Davies also is coming off of an international break where he played major roles in both matches for Wales, so he could have used the rest anyway.

But whatever bug he’s got, it must be pretty bad, as Mauricio Pochettino told the press that there’s a possibility that Davies could miss the plane to Madrid. Here’s what he said when asked if Davies would be ready for Tuesday’s match:

"It's difficult. I don't believe so. I hope that he can be involved again as soon as possible, but we need to assess him. But I am not so positive. I hope that I am wrong and tomorrow he can train with us."

That’s all kinds of bad if he’s not ready for Tuesday. Real Madrid at the Bernabeu is daunting enough, but try taking on Ronaldo, Isco, and Benzema with a makeshift left back. Danny Rose doesn’t look like he’s going to be ready to go, so I don’t know what the answer is. Tottenham could push Son Heung-Min back to left back again, or they could do something like what they did today and play a modified back four with Jan Vertonghen pushed wide left.

No option sounds particularly appealing, though. Maybe we should just cross our fingers and pray Davies starts feeling better soon.

Meanwhile, Georges-Kevin N’Koudou picked up a nasty knock to the head just after being subbed on in the late stages of the match against Bournemouth. Asmir Begovich took GKN out with a studs-up sliding tackle just outside the box during a four-on-one counterattack (which was a clear DOGSO and a red card, but whatever), and the French winger spent several minutes down on the pitch receiving treatment. Pochettino, however, said that he’ll probably be okay.

"N’Koudou was a knock to his head. He hit his head on the floor. We need to assess him, but now he's good. He was a little bit dizzy after the action. But now he's better and we hope too that he starts to feel better for tomorrow and training."

Sounds like a minor concussion to me. Just glad he wasn’t more seriously injured.