Tottenham dealt new injury blow as key defender forced off against Southampton

Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt another defensive injury blow, as Destiny Udogie was substituted in the first half of Sunday's Premier League clash with Southampton at St Mary's.

Ange Postecoglou's side tore the Saints to shreds in the opening exchanges on the South Coast, storming into a 4-0 lead with just 25 minutes gone as James Maddison, Son Heung-min, Pape Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski struck.

However, in the process of helping to set up Sarr's effort, left-back Udogie appeared to hurt himself, and the Italian immediately trudged off the field to be replaced by fellow full-back Pedro Porro.

Tottenham are already down to the bare bones at the back, as Ben Davies, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven are all sidelined, as is first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.

Postecoglou was still able to rotate his right-back resources, handing Djed Spence a long-overdue start in place of Porro, but the former switched to the left-back slot when his Spanish colleague took Udogie's place.

Udogie missed the end of the 2023-24 surgery after undergoing surgery on a quadriceps injury, which also meant that he was unable to represent Italy at Euro 2024.