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Cristian Stellini, assistant manager of Tottenham Hotspur, has revealed that he does not anticipate that Antonio Conte will return for Spurs’ London derby next week against his previous team Chelsea.
The Spurs manager underwent surgery to remove his gallbladder at the end of January after feeling significant abdominal pain and he was expecting to miss a few matches.
Conte was shockingly back at Hotspur Way after a week and led his team to defeats against Leicester City and AC Milan earlier this month, despite not having fully healed from his surgery.
Stellini says Conte Unlikely to Return for Derby
During his postgame news conference, Stellini was asked about Conte’s potential return for Chelsea’s upcoming match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but he was pessimistic about the 53-year-prospects old’s of leading the Blues in that capital match.
“No, I am not expecting Antonio is back for Chelsea but I expect Antonio will be back the week after Chelsea,” football.london quotes Stellini as saying.
“For Milan or Wolverhampton [Wanderers]. We have also the game in the FA Cup so maybe not Chelsea but we don’t know, because if Antonio feels well and he can live some stress without some pain or feel something strange, Antonio will be back,” Stellini said.
Although Conte watched from home, Tottenham struggled to create chances against West Ham in the first half, but fullbacks Emerson and Ben Davies teamed together to set up an early second-half goal for Tottenham.
Stellini Reveals why Son Did Not Start
Son, who was pulled from the starting lineup before going off the bench to replace the ineffectual Richarlison, doubled the advantage for the Lilywhites in the second half, when Harry Kane placed the South Korean through on goal.
Stellini disclosed that Son was not physically at 100 percent prior to the match, but he has no qualms about the attacker’s confidence and has emphasized the need to limit his minutes amid the punishing schedule.
“No, the confidence is 100 per cent, it is physically that he needed to recover. When he plays five games in a row, sometimes you can feel tired and you can feel something not perfect,” Stellini said.
“It is important for us that the player is mature enough to say this. It is important because you can’t manage the performance of 11 players. If you have 11 100 per cent, it is better to have seven and three that are not performing well but you need that they are mature and they speak with us,” the coach explained.
“Sonny in this case was perfect during the week but now we have time to manage him to play the next step with six games in 14 days,” he said.
Stellini, the assistant coach, not only led his team to victory over Marseille and Manchester City earlier in the season, but he also won all three of his team’s games on Sunday. Despite this impressive streak, Stellini continues to play down his accomplishments.
“This happened because Antonio is the gaffer, not because I am the gaffer. I only follow the project of his work and the way he works is really clear,” Stellini added. “I follow this and I use my experience and I use lot of the staff because we work in a team and we work very well. I am very happy to work with all of them, especially Ryan [Mason] because he helped me a lot.”
Tottenham have moved ahead of Newcastle United by one point, despite the fact that the Magpies have played one more game than they have. Next weekend, Spurs will have the opportunity to increase their lead over Newcastle while Eddie Howe’s team competes in the EFL Cup final against Manchester United.
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