Jose Mourinho said he was confident Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg would be fit for Tottenham’s FA Cup clash with Marine this weekend, despite the midfielder coming off with a nasty-looking cut to his shin in the side’s 2-0 win over Brentford on Tuesday night.
Spurs secured their place in the final of the Carabao Cup thanks to goals from Moussa Sissoko and Son Heung-min and Hojbjerg’s injury in the dying moments at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium put a slight dampener on the hosts’ evening.
Referee Mike Dean showed Josh Dasilva a straight red card for the reckless challenge on Hojbjerg – having checked with VAR – and Japhet Tanganga came on to replace the Denmark international for the final four minutes of the semi-final.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Mourinho would have been sweating over the severity of the injury given Tottenham’s busy schedule over the coming weeks but Hojbjerg is expected to make a speedy recovery.
The former Southampton star and could even feature on Sunday when the Premier League giants travel to Marine in the third round of the FA Cup.
‘It was for sure a bad tackle because he is bleeding a lot and the shin pad is broken, that is football,’ the Tottenham head coach said at his post-match press conference.
‘Dasilva is a young guy and a good player so in the heat of the game there is nothing to be critical of.
‘Mike Dean made the decision on VAR so everything is fine and correct.
‘Pierre has a big cut but he didn’t even want me to play Tanganga in the last five minutes so I believe he can be okay for the weekend.’
Dasilva vowed to ‘learn’ from the experience on Twitter and the Brentford midfielder got a lovely response from Hojbjerg, who joked he was owed a new shin pad.
‘Anyone that knows me, knows it was never intentional… will learn from this,’ Dasilva tweeted.
Hojbjerg replied: ‘Of course you didn’t mean it. So don’t worry. I’m a viking and I am fine. But… you owe me a new shin pad.
‘You have a great future ahead @joshdasilva_ . Be strong & keep working hard. Best of luck to you and your team. Big hug, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.’
Hojbjerg’s gruesome gash was stil visible as he shared a celebratory picture from the home dressing room after Spurs moved to within a game of their first trophy in 13 years with the victory.
‘Ready for the Carabao Cup FINAL!!’ said.
