‘Wants to play with one leg’: Conte says one Tottenham player is so committed to the cause

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Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has dismissed suggestions that Cristian Romero is more focused on the World Cup than on Spurs.

The Tottenham head coach, speaking to football.london, said the Argentina international would “play on one leg” if he could.

Romero is expected to miss the next three Spurs fixtures before the Premier League grinds to a halt for the 2022 World Cup.

The 24-year-old has been suffering with muscle fatigue and has missed three of Tottenham’s last four matches.

Conte recently said he took a “big, big risk” in playing him against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.

However, Romero is expected to be fit for the World Cup, which gets under way on 20 November.

This has led some Tottenham fans to question the defender’s commitment. But Conte is having none of it.

‘He wanted to risk’

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Liverpool, the Spurs boss was asked about Romero amid some Spurs supporters worrying he may be more focused on the tournament.

“No,” said Conte. “But about Romero I can tell you that for him, if I ask the possibility to play with one leg, he wants to play with one leg.

“For this reason I tell the fans we have players really committed for the club and maybe Romero, he had an injury because he wanted to risk and we wanted to take risk.

“Then he had this injury but for sure many teams are having big injuries and this is because we are playing every three days.

“I think we are seeing this situation is impossible, it is impossible for the future and it would be important for the future to understand.

“Because many times I hear about the welfare of the players but it is only a polite way to show that you are really interested in the welfare of the players, because they are not really worried about the welfare of the players if the schedule is this.

“In every moment you show that the most important thing is the show must go on and then please I don’t want to hear in the future, to listen about people speaking about the welfare of the players because this is not true.”

More mid-season World Cup havoc – TBR View

And there we have it, the mid-season World Cup now has fans falling out with players who are now stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Romero is the epitome of commitment, a player who gives his all for club and country.

Alas, having the pinnacle of international football shoehorned smack bang in the middle of the season is wreaking havoc on players’ bodies and minds.

Every top player wants to play at – and win – the World Cup, and Argentina, one of the leading nations in world football, are no different.

This is likely to be Lionel Messi’s last World Cup, so it’s now or never for the Albiceleste players.

And it’s not as if Romero is fully fit and just doesn’t fancy playing – he’s got fitness issues.

Let’s hope this is the first and only mid-season World Cup, eh?