Reid injury rocks Spurs

Tottenham have been rocked by the loss of winger Andy Reid with knee ligament damage.

Reid is likely to be out of action for up to six weeks after being forced out of their 1-0 defeat by Fulham at Craven Cottage on Tuesday night.

Spurs coach Martin Jol confirmed that the injury is a recurrence of the one which has dogged Reid’s season.

Jol said: “He has the same injury as before, a medial ligament problem and it seems to be worse, so he’ll be out for four to six weeks. That’s a big disappointment.”

Reid’s injury leaves Spurs short of options in midfield with Edgar Davids and Teemu Tainio both currently recovering from knocks and doubtful for the home clash with Charlton at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Meanwhile new signing Danny Murphy will not be allowed to make his Spurs debut against his former club.

Spurs agreed to Charlton’s request to keep Murphy out of the game after the former England midfielder clinched his move across London just minutes before transfer window deadline on Tuesday night.

Murphy’s Charlton career went into freefall after being tipped for an England recall earlier in the season when the Addicks reached second spot in the table for a brief period.

But Murphy found himself frozen out at the Valley under Alan Curbishley and seized the chance to resurrect his career under Jol’s guidance.

The former Liverpool midfielder insists he harbours no bitterness at the way he was treated by Charlton and denies he fell out with Curbishley.

“I will see the majority of staff and players on Sunday,” said Murphy. “There is no ill-feeling on my behalf, I will shake his hand, sometimes football happens that way.

“It does seem a little immature to look back on things, isolated incidents and build them up when they are not that big a deal, the majority of my time there was fine, and we got on fine, and it was only in recent weeks that we didn’t communicate as well as maybe we should have.

“They gave me an opportunity to come to Tottenham and that is something that I will thank them for as, if they had held me back, it would have been detrimental for my career.

“I think it was just a case that due to the speculation he felt that I maybe wasn’t in the right mindset. There certainly weren’t any demands on my part or that I wasn’t available for selection or anything like that.

“It’s just a case of him thinking that he didn’t want to put me in the side because he didn’t think maybe I was 100% focused, which wasn’t the case.

“I don’t like apportioning blame because it is not always about a manager, it is sometimes about the hierarchy in a club, and sometimes different things go on at clubs, they have their own agendas and budgets etc and I have never caused any of them any problem.

“There has not been a bust-up on one day that has been hidden, but it has just got to a point where I could move on to I think a bigger and better club and more competitive football, with better facilities, a bigger support.

“The one thing I said I always missed was that you go away and play in an way game and the following for Charlton is not as big, maybe it is half full at the away end, but to have four to five thousand fans travel everywhere you go is a big thing. I was used to that at Liverpool.

“It brings the best out of players. Of course Tottenham have that following and when it came up I don’t mind admitting I was the first one to express to Charlton and the manager that I wanted to do it. Purely on football level anyone can see it’s a fantastic opportunity.

“Me not being in the team was quite simply because the speculation started, it was not do with results so I was told anyway. As to the reasons why things didn’t just happen in the last month at Charlton, is somewhat irrelevant really.

“Everything was right this time and it is an opportunity for me, which if I had not taken, I would have regretted it for the rest of my career.”

Jol confirmed that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy agreed to Charlton’s request not to play the midfielder on Sunday but believes that Murphy is just the player the side needs after the sale of Michael Brown to Fulham and Wayne Routledge’s loan move to Portsmouth.

He said: “Charlton didn’t want him to play so our chairman gave his word. I think Danny is something we needed, we have five midfield players out, including Wayne Routledge, so I thought we needed an attacking midfield player.”