De Zerbi Defends Medical Staff Amid Injury Crisis at Tottenham

Tottenham’s walking wounded will head to Stamford Bridge on Saturday with Roberto De Zerbi adamant about one thing: don’t blame the doctors.

The Spurs head coach, facing a potentially brutal absentee list for the meeting with Chelsea, mounted a fierce defence of his medical and performance staff, insisting the club’s injury crisis is “a normal situation in football” rather than the product of any internal failings.

De Zerbi stands by his staff

Spurs could travel across London without as many as nine players once long‑term injuries and suspension are taken into account. Pedro Porro’s return is a rare shaft of light. The defender is available again, while De Zerbi reported that Andy Robertson, Omar Marmoush and Dominic Solanke were “good” after recent fitness concerns.

The good news stops there.

Destiny Udogie remains sidelined. Tosin Adarabioyo is a doubt. James Maddison has not trained for three days following Monday’s win over Coventry and is at serious risk of missing out. Dejan Kulusevski, who only just made his first appearance since May 2025 in that same game, will be handled with extreme caution.

Add in longer‑term absentees such as Lucas Bergvall and Savio, plus Rodrigo Bentancur’s suspension, and De Zerbi is staring at a threadbare squad for a fixture that has tormented Tottenham for years.

Yet he refused to turn his fire inwards. Spurs appointed Dan Lewindon as performance director last season, and he oversaw a raft of new hires in July. De Zerbi insisted their work stands up to scrutiny.

“I am convinced our medical staff this season is high level,” he said. “I have big confidence because I know how they are working and they are good enough to believe in. We are suffering a normal situation in football.”

‘What is the responsibility of the medical staff?’

To make his case, De Zerbi walked through the key cases one by one.

Porro, he argued, arrived at the season’s start with a heavy load already in his legs. “Pedro won the World Cup with Spain,” De Zerbi said. “Maybe with the head or body he didn’t recover enough to start this season without a pre-season. He already suffered in the World Cup the muscular problem of the hamstring.”

The defender felt the issue in training yet still pushed to play against Aston Villa on 29 September. He aggravated the problem. For De Zerbi, that is not a question of poor management from the bench or treatment room.

“He felt it in training and played anyway against Aston Villa because he pushed to come back before the right time and he suffered another injury. What is the responsibility of the medical staff?”

Bergvall’s setback came in a flash. “Bergvall turned his knee and felt pain in the first minute against Manchester United [on 10 October]. He finished the game and the day after he felt pain. What is the responsibility of the medical staff? Nothing.”

Robertson’s situation was pinned on a demanding international schedule. “Robertson played four games in a row for Scotland [during the recent international window] and after that felt a small problem and did not play in Manchester. He played 65 minutes against Coventry and was fatigued. It’s normal fatigue for a player who played [so much].”

For De Zerbi, these are the inevitable scars of elite football, not the consequence of flawed preparation or misjudged rehabilitation.

A “total report” on the injury picture will come at the end of the season, he promised, but he is not waiting for that to back his staff. “So far we can’t say anything bad about the medical staff.”

Stamford Bridge ghosts? Not ours, says De Zerbi

If the injury list is long, so too is Tottenham’s record of suffering at Stamford Bridge. One win in 42 visits in all competitions. The numbers are stark.

De Zerbi, though, dismissed any sense of historical burden. This, he insisted, is not his story, nor his players’.

“What is the problem?” he said. “We didn’t play in the past for Tottenham and I was not the Tottenham coach in the last seasons. We have already many problems and this is not a problem.”

The message is clear. Spurs arrive in west London bruised, patched up and short of options, but with no appetite for excuses and no interest in ghosts.

If they are to rip up that wretched record at Stamford Bridge, they will have to do it the hard way – and with a manager determined that, whatever happens, the blame will not land on the treatment table.