Tottenham Hotspur were without Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie for their Premier League clash against Everton on Saturday. Both players started in the goalless draw at Nottingham Forest last weekend but failed to make the matchday squad for the visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Porro and Udogie absent
Archie Gray and Andy Robertson were named in the starting defence in place of the absent duo. Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday, Spurs boss De Zerbi said the club would take a cautious approach over Porro's availability.
“Pedro Porro felt a small muscular problem, we have to see tomorrow if he’s available or not but in this moment I don’t want to take any risks. The same [with] Udogie,” De Zerbi said.
Managing player workloads
De Zerbi also explained the reasoning behind managing both players' minutes. “Pedro Porro and Udogie are similar players because one, Pedro played a World Cup, a long World Cup and we already knew after the World Cup it could be a difficult management for him,” he added.
“For Udogie, last season [he] suffered many injuries, he played 60 minutes in Nottingham and we have to manage also Destiny in the best way we can.”
