Medical expert warns Lo Celso to ‘improve his condition’ or face Tottenham freeze-out
Giovani Lo Celso’s injury in post-match training is rare – but it is not a huge surprise given the levels Tottenham boss Antonio Conte demands.
So says injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Lo Celso was not involved as Spurs beat West Ham 2-1 in the League Cup quarter-final last Wednesday (22 December).
Per football.london on Monday (27 December), Conte revealed Lo Celso had suffered a calf injury in training after the clash against their London rivals.
The elite Italian manager claimed that the setback is “not serious”.
The Argentina midfielder, 25, has only just recovered from a knee injury sustained on international duty that caused him to miss seven games.
Dinnery claimed that Conte’s famously demanding training sessions increase the likelihood of injuries in a non-competitive environment.
“These things happen,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“Players who didn’t play or only got limited minutes will go out and do a session after the match.
“We know Lo Celso picked up that problem playing for the national team as well. He needs to get up to speed and improve his condition.
“It’s not a warm-down session as such. It’s not one of those where a player has been involved in a game and it is a post-match recovery.
“This could be a fairly high-intensity session to ensure that Lo Celso is progressing through that recovery phase.
“Is it rare in that post-match warm-down? Yes. But we can maybe read between the lines and say this was in a fairly rigorous training session.
“As with all training sessions, you are running the risk at times. You need to develop and push thresholds.
“Conte wants incredible levels from his players. If you are always working within comfort zones, you aren’t going to progress, you’re going to plateau.”
Lo Celso missed Spurs’ 3-0 win over Crystal Palace last Sunday (26 December) and 1-1 draw with Southampton on Tuesday (28 December) as a result of his latest injury.
He has one goal and one assist in 14 appearances across all competitions this term.
In other news, pundit can’t believe Tottenham insider’s Harry Kane update.