“For Christian Romero it’s bad news. Because of severe injuries I think it will take a while to see him again, for sure next year and we have to check for injuries week by week. But it’s quite intense.”

“Now he is trying to recover his body. He needed some time to recover. It’s a pity because he is our key player But this injury is very serious.”

“January, February, I don’t know yet, but 2021 is over.”

“Gio’s situation (Lo Celso) is much better than Romero. My expectation is to see him the next day. After we played against Brentford he started his own career, G.O. It was another player we wanted to take advantage of. He’s a good player,” Conte said.

Christian Romero has been injured needed some time to recover

Conte said: “The news is not positive, the injury is serious. It will take time before we see him again. Surely next year, we have to check his injury week by week, but the injury is serious.

“Now he is trying to recover but he needs a long time to recover. It is a pity because he is an important player for us, the injury is very serious.

“I don’t know, January, February. But for 2021 he has finished to play. We have to wait and recover well.”

Romero’s injury could force Spurs to act in the January transfer window, but Conte is playing it cool, insisting he has had no thoughts about what next season might entail

“Honestly when I decided to become Tottenham manager I didn’t speak about this aspect,” he said.

“When you take a job, you have to make your evaluations and you have to feel your sensation. And honestly I felt Tottenham was the right club to work and to bring my ideas and philosophy of football. For this reason, I accepted the job.

“I didn’t talk about January or the way to improve the team. I repeat: I’m here because I have great enthusiasm, great patience to start a new work with Tottenham.”