Not sacked in the morning as the South Stand choir had recommended, Thomas Frank emerged smiling from Tottenham’s training centre, leading his seriously depleted squad through preparation for a Champions League tie against Borussia Dortmund.
The Spurs boss was among the first out on to the pitch, preceded only by freshly appointed assistant John Heitinga and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
‘Very good, actually,’ replied Frank when asked how he was. ‘The sun is shining and we’re playing football.’
The sun wasn’t shining but at least the morning drizzle had ceased. The beleaguered Dane is still standing. Still in his job but with uncertainty swirling around his future and the list of players unavailable for Dortmund is stretching into double figures.
Ben Davies is the latest hit by serious injury. The experienced Wales international will have surgery on a broken ankle suffered against West Ham on Saturday. Davies joins a casualty list also including Richarlison, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison.
Joao Palhinha, who missed the 2-1 defeat against West Ham, did not train. Pape Matar Sarr is on his way back from international duty but missed Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final through illness. Micky van de Ven is suspended from a yellow card in the previous Champions League outing against Slavia Prague.
Radu Dragusin and Yves Bissouma are ineligible having been omitted from the UEFA squad. New signing Conor Gallagher cannot be registered until the end of the league phase and it remains unclear if Dominic Solanke of Mathys Tel is in the squad, but they cannot both be named.
Archie Gray, who came off at half time against West Ham, did train and the sessions was boosted by a cluster of players from the youth team.
