Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen faces a race to be fit for the start of the season after injuring his ankle in the 3-1 loss to Sunderland on Wednesday in Hong Kong.
A Tottenham side already without Gareth Bale — also injured — lost the influential Belgian international shortly after he came on as a substitute when he fell awkwardly on the wet surface.
The friendly, part of the Barclays Asia Trophy, had been delayed 30 minutes because of torrential rain at Hong Kong Stadium and each half was only 40 minutes long.
Sunderland will play Manchester City in the final after City defeated local side South China 1-0 in the later game to give Manuel Pellegrini his first victory as manager.
“He might have sprained ligaments in his ankle so we obviously need the MRI (scan) to know the full extent of the injury,” Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas said of the loss of Vertonghen.
“He has some range of movement, which gives us some indication that probably it may not be too long.”
Asked if Vertonghen, a key man in the Tottenham defence last season, would be back for the start of Spurs’ season on August 18, he added: “Depends on the extent (of the injury) from the MRI.
“I think because of the range of the movement that he has I think we have the possibility he will be back for the start of the season.”
The Portuguese conceded that he had been concerned beforehand about the state of the pitch, which was heavily waterlogged in patches and had players slipping frequently.
“The choice of the venue is this one and the weather is unpredictable. The pitch is what it is and has always been like this in this trophy. It isn’t great but nobody is going to change it for next time.
“Obviously the conditions are extremely poor and the players are vulnerable to this type of situation.”
Villas-Boas refused to answer questions about star man Bale, with Spanish press saying that the winger wants to leave the London side for Real Madrid.
“I can’t make any more comments because I made it during the press conference for this game, so I don’t want to repeat myself in all press conferences,” was all Villas-Boas would say.
Tottenham took the lead in the 28th minute through a heavily deflected shot from Gylfi Sigurdsson that wrong-footed Vito Mannone, the new signing from Arsenal.
Sunderland equalised minutes later when midfielder Cabral, another new signing by manager Paolo Di Canio, capitalised on a mistake by Tom Huddlestone to skip through the centre of the Spurs defence and slot the ball past Heurelho Gomes.
Former Manchester United defender Wes Brown put Sunderland 2-1 up with a thumping header from a corner before sub David Moberg Karlsson put the game out of reach late on.
In the second game of a wet night, City had too much class for South China and booked their Saturday date with Sunderland thanks to a goal from Edin Dzeko midway through the first-half.
City gave a debut to new striker Alvaro Negredo, who entered the fray as a substitute and came close with a couple of spectacular efforts.
“We improved from the last game in South Africa (when City lost) and that was very important to improve physically and technically,” said Pellegrini, who only landed in Hong Kong on Tuesday after going home to Chile following the death of his mother.
“I know Alvaro Negredo very well from the Spanish league so it was no surprise for me the way he played.
“We have very good strikers with Edin Dzeko, they can play together, or play with (Stevan) Jovetic, but we have four very good strikers and that’s necessary if we want to play Premier League and Champions League as a competitive team.”
Asked if he thought he had the strongest frontline in the league, the former Malaga boss said: “I think so, yes. We are not preparing just a team, we are preparing a whole squad.”
Vertonghen injured in Spurs defeat in HK
