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'We are very sad and disappointed. We are going to miss him, maybe for the rest of the season, and we are worried about that'
Tottenham Hotspur's elation at beating Manchester City 1-0 in their Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday was somewhat overshadowed by the prospect of a potential season-ending injury for Harry Kane.
Kane, who has scored 24 goals this season, rolled his ankle painfully just before the hour mark after a hefty tackle on City defender Fabian Delph.
The England striker left the field immediately and looks a major doubt for next week's second leg in Manchester.
He could even miss the run-in to Tottenham's season, having already had a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an injury to the same ankle in January when he damaged ligaments.
"We are very sad and disappointed. We are going to miss him, maybe for the rest of the season, and we are worried about that. He doesn't have much time to recover," Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino told reporters.
"We'll see in the next few days. We can only look forward and hope it's not a big issue and that he can recover as soon as possible, but it doesn't look good."
Pochettino exchanged angry words with Delph after the incident, in which the City player appeared to stand on Kane's ankle as the pair tussled for the ball.
"He was so aggressive with Harry after the action," Pochettino said. "I tried to explain to him that it wasn't the intention of Harry or him to damage each other, it was a tough action, and Harry twisted his ankle."
"I said to Delph, 'You were lucky', because they were checking the VAR and technically it could have been a red card. But I think both were fighting for the ball."
Son Heung-min, who scored goals in the four successive matches in which Kane was missing earlier in the season, rose to the occasion again to seal a crucial win for Tottenham with his 18th club goal of the season in all competitions.
The livewire South Korean cut in from the byline in the 78th minute and fired a shot past Ederson to give Tottenham a slender advantage to protect at The Etihad Stadium next week, the second of three games in 10 days between the two clubs.
Tottenham showed great discipline to shackle a City side who surprisingly left Kevin de Bruyne on the bench until the 89th minute, but Pochettino still reckons his side are underdogs to reach their first Champions League semi-final.
"It was so tough," he said. "I am happy but Manchester City are still favourites. We showed great quality and the performance was good but there are still 90 minutes to play."
City will need to overturn a curious statistic if they are to keep alive their hopes of an unprecedented quadruple.
They have now lost all five of their European matches against English opponents, including both legs of last year's quarter-final against Premier League title rivals Liverpool.
City have also not won a European tie on aggregate after an away first-leg loss since beating Gornik Zabrze in the 1970/71 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals.
On that occasion they needed a replay, after each side won 2-0 at home, as they went through 3-1 in the third game.
