Vertonghen injury "looks bad"

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says the ankle injury defender Jan Vertonghen suffered in Saturday's 4-0 win over West Brom"looks bad".

Vertonghen rolled over on his left ankle during the match at White Hart Lane, and walked down the tunnel in tears following treatment from the Spurs medical staff.

The Belgian international suffered ligament damage to the same ankle on Euro 2016 duty in June, but recovered in time to face Everton in Tottenham's Premier League opener on 13 August.

Spurs' boss Mauricio Pochettino says doctors will not be able to the assess the injury until early next week because of the swelling.

"Yes it looks very bad. We feel very disappointed," Pochettino said.

"It looks very bad but we need to wait and assess him on Monday or Tuesday."

Pochetino was delighted by his side's performance in the 4-0 win over West Brom, hailing the first half in particular as "fantastic".

Tottenham made it six wins from six Premier League games to move up to second place in the table, four points behind leaders Chelsea, who face Leicester City at the King Power Stadium later on Saturday evening.

"The first 45 minutes was fantastic, it was wonderful football," the Argentine said.

"We can feel very happy with the performance, the players played very well against a very difficult team.

"I think after Chelsea it was a big challenge to keep the momentum and show that we are mature enough to fight for big things and today was a very good example of that. The performance was brilliant."

Photo: Getty Images/Clive Rose

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