Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi has delivered a significant injury update ahead of his side's Premier League clash against Tottenham. The Seagulls have been hampered by injuries throughout the first few months of the 2023/24 season with the likes of Solly March, Ansu Fati, Joel Veltman and Julio Enciso currently absent.
Having qualified for the Europa League last season, Brighton have been required to play an extra game in the space of seven days on a number of occasions, while also having to deal with the departures of Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister to Chelsea and Liverpool, respectively.
As a result, Premier League results have been impacted with Brighton particularly struggling at home as Fulham, Sheffield United and Burnley have all departed Amex Stadium with a share of the spoils. While De Zerbi has been able to welcome back Jakub Moder in recent weeks from a lengthy lay-off, that positive has arrived with another negative.
«Tomorrow (Thursday), we have more or less ten injured players, maybe less, maybe eight, but two players can't start the game,» he admitted in a press conference on Thursday. «We've lost Kaoru for around six weeks, four, five, or six weeks. I don’t think he can play in the Asian Cup with Japan (January 12-February 10).»
Mitoma went off in the late stages of last week's draw against Crystal Palace, however, at the very least, the Brighton boss was able to confirm that Pervis Estupinan will be back on the bench for the visit of Spurs after he picked up a fresh problem in his injury return match against Ajax in early November. Injury issues have also impacted Ange Postecoglou in his first season at Tottenham with summer signing duo James Maddison and Micky van de Ven missing the last few months.
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