Harambee Stars captain and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Victor Wanyama has had another injury setback on his troubled knee and is set to miss out on the North London team’s pre-season clash against Barcelona on Sunday 29 July.
Wanyama suffered the setback in a closed door pre-season clash against English Championship side Brentford one week ago which led to him missing Spurs’ 4-1 win over AS Roma on Thursday 26 July in the International Champions Cup (ICC).
The combative midfielder missed a big chunk of the 2017-18 season due to a knee injury, staying out for more than four months and struggled to force his way back to the starting team fold after his return in the second half of the season but doctors who are assessing him have downplayed this latest setback, insisting that his absence from the team is only a precautionary measure.
Mauricio Pochettino is short of options in central midfield as regulars Eric Dier and Moussa Dembele are yet to return to the team after starring at the World Cup for England and Belgium respectively.
Spurs have three more exhibition matches before their season league opener against Newcastle United on 11 August. After playing Barcelona on Sunday in California, they will take on Italian heavyweights AC Milan in Minneapolis on Wednesday 1 August before concluding their preseason preps three days later, on 4 August with a clash against Spanish side Girona FC at the Montilivi Stadium in Spain.
Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino had named a total of 25 players. His squad is a blend of regulars and youngsters who will be fighting to impress and earn a place in the first team.
Regulars in the squad include Wanyama, Christian Eriksen, Sergie Aurier, Eric Lamela, Lucas Moura, Kevin Nkoudou, Davinson Sanchez, Moussa Sissoko, Hueng-Min Son and Kyle Walker.
Wanyama will be hoping to overcome last season’s struggles that saw him make just eight starts in the Premier League. He picked a knee injury in August 2017 against Chelsea and recovered in December.
His side will play against AS Roma in the first ICC Cup that on Thursday 26 July at SDCCU stadium in San Diego. Spurs will be back in action against Spanish Giants Barcelona at Rose Bowl stadium on Sunday 29 July. Their third match will be against AC Milan on Wednesday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Spurs squad: Serge Aurier, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Ben Davies, Christian Eriksen, Juan Foyth, Paulo Gazzaniga, Erik Lamela, Fernando Llorente, Lucas Moura, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, Davinson Sanchez, Moussa Sissoko, Heung-Min Son, Michel Vorm, Kyle Walker-Peters. Victor Wanyama, Luke Amos, Brandon Austin, TJ Eyoma, Anthony Georgiou, George Marsh, Tashan Oakley-Boothe, Oliver Skipp, Kazaiah Sterling, Alfie Whiteman
The 2018 International Champions Cup (or ICC) is the sixth edition of a series of friendly association football matches. It began on July 20 and will end on August 11, 2018.
There will be a second North West Derby between Manchester United and Liverpool in the United States. The match will be held at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, where United last played Real Madrid and had record capacity. The first since the finals of the 2014 tournament where Manchester United won 3–1 in Miami
A total of 18 teams will participate in the tournament. The participants were announced in four waves on April 10, 11, 12 and 17, 2018. On June 18, Lyon replaced Sevilla in the competition.
Originally 22 venues for the International Champions Cup were announced on April 13 and 17, 2018, but was later increased to 23. Of these, 15 are in the United States, 7 in Europe, and 1 in Singapore.
After Sevilla had to pull out (replaced by Lyon), matches due to take place in Warsaw and Zürich have been cancelled and replaced by matches in London and Faro-Loulé. The two matches of Chelsea have been relocated from Gothenburg and Solna to Nice and Dublin respectively.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s US tour began in defeat as they were beaten 3-1 by a Christian Pulisic-inspired Borussia Dortmund in Charlotte.
Liverpool had led through Virgil van Dijk’s first-half header, but Pulisic’s half-time introduction proved the turning point as he scored twice and helped set up Jacob Bruun Larsen’s third to seal an International Champions Cup win.
On day one, Riyad Mahrez made his debut and Joe Hart played 45 minutes as Man City were beaten 1-0 by Borussia Dortmund in their opening pre-season clash.
Dortmund won the International Champions Cup clash via Mario Gotze’s penalty (28) after Oleksandr Zinchenko had fouled Christian Pulisic, but it was a decent run-out for the Premier League champions as two faces, one new and one familiar, turned out.
City gave Mahrez a debut in Chicago alongside a host of young players, including Douglas Luiz, Jack Harrison, Lukas Nmecha, Eric Garcia, Brahim Diaz and Luke Bolton.
Bayern Munich hit three second-half goals as they beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 on Saturday in an International Champions Cup fixture in Austria.
PSG were without their World Cup winners, but they did start Adrien Rabiot, who refused to serve as a reserve for the French squad. Bayern were without their legion of German internationals, despite the national team’s early exit in Russia.
PSG had the best of the first half and took the lead with a 31st-minute goal by American Timothy Weah, the 18-year-old son of Liberia legend George Weah.