Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt a cruel injury blow ahead of their return to Premier League action this evening...

What's the latest?

Nuno Santo's side welcome Manchester United to north London and they will be looking to respond to last weekend's defeat to local rivals West Ham United. Meanwhile, the pressure is on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who is reportedly fighting for his job, starting with tonight's encounter.

The Portuguese head coach in the home dugout is far from out of the water himself, so a lot is on the line heading into kick-off. To make matters worse, Nuno will be without the services of Bryan Gil.

The 20-year-old gem was withdrawn just 25 minutes into their Carabao Cup Round of 16 win over Burnley on Wednesday night with a suspected hamstring injury.

Speaking ahead of the game, Nuno revealed (via football.london): "Bryan we have a problem with, he came out in the game. We are assessing. [Ryan] Sessegnon is not involved, [he is] still not in the group. [We have] normal knocks after the game. We still have the training session this afternoon then we'll see who starts."

Cruel blow

This will be a gutting setback to Gil but also Nuno, as the young Spaniard has the potential of being one of the big solutions to a major problem.

At the London Stadium on Sunday, the Lilywhites did not register a single shot, either on or off target, throughout the entire second half, even when chasing the game from the 72nd minute.

The lack of creativity was alarming. Spurs had 63% possession in the 45 minutes after the interval but failed to create a single big chance or key pass, as per SofaScore.

Gil is a player who can provide flair and tenacity in the final third, having averaged 1.7 crosses and 1.9 key passes per 90 in La Liga last season and been dubbed as someone with "unbelievable amounts of technique."

The Red Devils have kept just one clean sheet in their last 20 matches across all competitions, so Harry Kane and Heung-min Son will surely be licking their lips at the thought of playing against an out-of-sorts United defence.

However, they really need support up top, and Gil could've provided the cutting edge. Therefore, not having him available will come as a cruel and annoying blow to everyone concerned with Spurs.

Nuno must be concerned that he may struggle to turn around their fortunes in attack without his 20-year-old summer signing available this evening.

AND in other news, Imagine him & Romero: Nuno could form scary Spurs duo by signing 6 ft 5 "Rolls-Royce"...