Tottenham Faces Injury Crisis Ahead of Carabao Cup Tie at Anfield

Tottenham’s week has unravelled before a ball has even been kicked.

Roberto De Zerbi will take his side to Anfield for a Carabao Cup tie without Sandro Tonali, without Pedro Porro – and without any hope of a late Richarlison reunion.

Injury blows before Anfield

Porro, already missing from the goalless draw with Everton, has not shaken off the muscular problem that kept him out at the weekend. Tonali joined him on the treatment table after picking up a knock in that same 0-0 stalemate, ruling the midfielder out of the midweek trip.

Two starters gone in one game. Two pillars of De Zerbi’s structure removed in three days.

There is at least one sliver of good news. Destiny Udogie is back.

The Italy international left-back, absent from the Everton draw, is set to return to the matchday squad. His comeback offers badly needed balance to a back line stripped of Porro’s drive from the opposite flank. Udogie’s presence restores some width, some aggression, some reassurance.

Tottenham will need all of it.

Richarlison saga overshadows cup tie

The conversation around the tie, though, barely lingered on tactics or injuries. It snapped straight to Richarlison.

Left out of Tottenham’s 25-man Premier League squad, the Brazilian remains frozen out domestically. The Carabao Cup, with its different registration rules, could have offered a loophole, a way back, at least for one night.

De Zerbi slammed that door shut.

Asked directly whether the former Everton forward might feature at Anfield, the Italian was blunt. Reporters, he said, already knew the answer. Nothing had changed for the cup. Nothing had changed for the league. The situation, he insisted, was exactly the same.

He drew a clear line around his responsibilities. He would talk about results. About players in the squad. About attacking spaces and defensive structures. But not about “the other things” – the politics and negotiations that now define Richarlison’s future.

The message was unmistakable: this is no temporary omission. This is a stance.

A contract rejected, a bridge burned

De Zerbi then lifted the curtain on how the fallout began.

At the start of the summer window, he said, he tried to keep Richarlison at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Not just with words, but with a proposal. A contract extension, put directly to the player.

The answer was a flat “no”.

From De Zerbi’s perspective, that was the end of his part in the story. He had spoken with the striker at the beginning of the season, offered a longer deal, tried to convince him to stay. Once Richarlison declined, the coach considered his job done on that front.

What followed was a messy stand-off. Richarlison started the league opener at Brentford, then was told he could leave. A return to Everton never materialised. Interest from Trabzonspor went nowhere. A move to Vasco da Gama was turned down by the player on Friday.

The stalemate hardened.

De Zerbi hinted that the last 45 days inside the club have been tense, but refused to spill details. He framed the issue as a relationship problem between player and club, not coach and player. He made it clear he stands with the club, having already spent weeks trying to change Richarlison’s mind.

He will not try again.

“I can’t go every day to pray for him to stay,” he concluded, drawing a firm line under any talk of reconciliation.

A big miss against a familiar foe

On the pitch, Richarlison’s absence cuts deep.

Tottenham are still searching for their first Premier League goal of the season. They now head to Anfield without a forward who has repeatedly hurt Liverpool in the past, scoring four times in seven appearances against the Reds during his Spurs spell.

That knack for turning tight games, that sharpness in the box, will not be there for De Zerbi to call on. Not in the league. Not in the cup.

So Tottenham go into a knockout tie at Anfield missing Tonali’s control, Porro’s thrust and Richarlison’s edge – and with a manager who has chosen clarity over compromise.

If this is the line in the sand for De Zerbi and the club, the next question is simple: who steps across it to lead Spurs out of this storm?