By Ben Dinnery

20th Nov, 2022 | 11:05am

Insider: Tottenham players 'disheartened' as 'huge' claim issued

The Tottenham players will be “disheartened” they are staying in England for the World Cup break but it is not a “huge surprise”.

That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis, speaking exclusively to Football Insider. 

As relayed by the Athletic last week (15 November), Tottenham are the only ‘big six’ team not to be travelling abroad for any warm weather training during the break.

Of the 20 Premier League clubs, Spurs are one of only three who are staying in England for the entirety of the break.

“Ultimately the players may be a little bit disappointed or disheartened that some of their compatriots are off to sunny climes and they are stuck in north London with whatever the British weather presents,” Dinnery told Football Insider‘s Connor Whitley.

“Certainly from that aspect you would always prefer to get yourself away.

“But if you look at the facilities at Tottenham Hotspur Way and the money they’ve spent, you probably look elsewhere in the world and, other than the weather, what is comparable? It’s cutting edge.

“There might be part of Antonio Conte’s thoughts that you go off to these warm weather camps and potentially, with changes of environment and time zones, you are opening players up to picking up the odd illness and virus.

“Potentially you could lose days of training for certain players. During this period every second, every minute counts, particularly when you want to keep everyone for the second half of the season.

“You can understand why that decision has been taken. Of course there’s nobody that comes around that says you have to get yourself away. These decisions are made on an individual club basis.

“It doesn’t come as a huge surprise.”

In other news, Conte deserves an extended ban as “punch” footage emerges at Tottenham.