Jose Mourinho appeared to have been taken aback by Gareth Bale’s request for a scan on an injury he described as ‘not obvious’ before their FA Cup defeat at Everton on Wednesday.
Bale was not in the squad for the 5-4 FA Cup extra-time defeat having decided himself after training he was not feeling comfortable.
“I think it is better for me to say: we played against West Brom on the Sunday and he didn’t play, he was on the bench,” said the Spurs boss.
“Monday I was a bit surprised by him wanting to have a scan because he was not feeling comfortable.
“He didn’t train on Monday then on the Tuesday he trained with the team but I was informed his desire would be to work with the sports science for a couple of days to strengthen that area where he was not feeling comfortable.
“That is the reason why he is not here. I don’t think it is an obvious injury, I would say he feels uncomfortable and because of that training session he couldn’t be 100 per cent.”
With Bale absent and Harry Kane as a substitute Tottenham went from 1-0 up to 3-1 down and twice had to equalise to force extra-time.
Their fourth goal came from the England captain after he was summoned off the bench and became the club’s second-highest scorer with his 209th goal, taking him past Bobby Smith to sit behind only Jimmy Greaves (266 in 379).
However, it was ultimately not enough as another substitute Bernard, scored the winner seven minutes into added time.
Spurs would put behind them a disappointing FA Cup ouster, when they travel to the Etihad stadium to face an in-form Manchester City side in the English Premier League on Saturday.
City now posses a record of 15 wins in a row – the longest in the history of English football – after they defeated second-tier Swansea 3 – 1 on Wednesday to reach the FA Cup quarter-final.
