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This article is part of Football FanCast's Injury News series, which considers the impact of the latest updates on players' fitness.

Tottenham Hotspur rather strangely described Eric Dier as a 'versatile defender' in an injury update on their official website on Thursday, and given their issues at right-back at the moment it may hint he could be in line for a rare start there.

What's the word, then?

Well, Spurs were providing the latest on their squad prior to the visit of Crystal Palace to north London on Saturday, and said that Tanguy Ndombele, Ryan Sessegnon, Kyle Walker-Peters and Eric Dier are all back in training, but that Davinson Sanchez could be a doubt following irritation on his ankle.

The Colombian started at right-back ahead of the available Serge Aurier in Walker-Peters' absence against Arsenal prior to the international break, and if he is ruled out it may leave manager Mauricio Pochettino with a bit of a conundrum if Walker-Peters also isn't fit enough to start.

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While the latter was described as a right-back on the official website, the labelling of Dier was a little more confusing.

Dier set for right-back role?

Of those matches in which Dier's position played has been recorded by Transfermarkt, the large majority of them show that he has either featured in a defensive midfield role or as a centre-back, so the wording of him being a 'versatile defender' rather than a 'versatile defensive player' is certainly notable and timely given their right-back issues.

According to Transfermarkt, he has played there on 25 occasions so he does have previous, and given the shortage of options there it wouldn't be a total surprise if he was being considered, especially following on from potentially controversial comments from Aurier this week having already been left out against the Gunners.

Given you would think Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld would be guaranteed to play at centre-back if Sanchez is absent, that leaves right-back as the role the 'versatile' Dier could fit.

It may all be pure coincidence, but we for one certainly wouldn't be surprised to see the England international selected there against the Eagles.

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