Unlucky Tottenham ace Jermain Defoe is facing the prospect of missing his club’s entire Champions League group-stage campaign after undergoing ankle surgery (Spurs 10/3 – Group A Winners).
The England international, who fired a hat-trick against Bulgaria at Wembley a week ago, suffered an injury against Switzerland on Tuesday night and will now miss up to three months of action.
A Spurs statement on their website confirmed: “Following a review by an ankle specialist, Jermain Defoe underwent surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right ankle yesterday [Thursday] evening.
“The striker was forced off with the injury during England’s European Championship qualifier in Switzerland on Tuesday and has been ruled out of action for around three months.”
Ironically, Defoe was only playing for his country after managing a groin problem without the need for an operation.
Spurs start their Champions League challenge on Tuesday with a trip to German side Werder Bremen before it concludes early in December with a trip to Dutch outfit FC Twente (Spurs 40/1 – Champions League Outright).
But Redknapp will be without Defoe so must choose between Peter Crouch, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Robbie Keane up front as he looks to negotiate Group A which also contains reigning European champions Inter Milan.
Defoe’s loss is the second blow for Redknapp after defender Michael Dawson was ruled out for eight weeks with a knee and ankle ligament problems, also picked up on international duty with England.
Spurs return to Premier League action on Saturday with a trip to West Brom as they bid to bounce back from the home defeat to Wigan at the end of last month.
Meanwhile, Spurs’ new-boy, Rafael van der Vaart, says he sees no reason why the club cannot overtake Arsenal to become London’s second best club behind reigning Premier League champions.
“Why not?” said the 27-year-old midfielder, “Arsenal have a great team also with a lot of young players but our squad is not worse than Arsenal’s.
“I think we will have a chance to win against them and also, over the season, we can try to beat them.
“I already spoke with Robin [van Persie] and he said it is the greatest derby in the world.
“I’m looking forward to playing in the derby.”
Spurs can be backed at 11/4 to repeat last season’s top-four finish in the Premier League.
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