Tottenham boss Antonio Conte plays down another ‘lasagne-gate’ happening after Spurs legend Gary Lineker cooked up fears
ANTONIO CONTE played down fears of a repeat of 2006’s infamous ‘Lasagne-gate’ hitting his Tottenham squad - after a storm cooked up by club legend Gary Lineker.
Lineker, 61, this afternoon tweeted that he had heard of a food-poisoning outbreak at Spurs.
It followed star striker Harry Kane pulling out of a planned media appearance at the Museum of London to launch a display about his own career due to feeling unwell.
Spurs insisted it was not food poisoning but a stomach bug, and revealed that another unidentified player had missed training on Wednesday with it too, before returning to training on Thursday. The same issue affected four players ahead of last weekend’s home win over Burnley.
Yet Conte still expects to have the same squad of players that beat the Clarets to be available for Sunday’s final-day trip to Norwich - including Kane.
The Italian, who can seal Champions League qualification with a draw at Carrow Road, said: “Against Burnley we had four cases with stomach problems. This week I have to be honest we had a couple of cases about this, but we overcame this situation.
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“Also members of the staff for one day, they were not feeling so good.
“I don't know why but the last week and also this week we faced this situation.
“In this moment honestly this virus is the last of our problems because we are very close to reach a big achievement for the club, for our fans, for the players.”
On Kane being fit for Sunday, Conte replied: “Yeah for sure.
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“Also because in the last game we had Deki (Kulusevski) had this problem - he didn’t have training with us on Saturday but on Sunday he was good to play.
“For sure Harry doesn’t want to miss this type of game. This game means a lot for everybody.”
Spurs fans can be forgiven for feeling like history may have been repeating itself.
Sixteen years ago a huge proportion of the squad were hit by a bug - which it was claimed came from a dodgy lasagne - ahead of their final-day game at West Ham.
The illness-hit team lost 2-1 and missed out on a Champions League spot to arch-rival Arsenal - the only team who can beat them to a top-four spot this term.
Asked if he feared a lasagne-gate repeat, Conte replied: “I don't want to know this story. It’s not a lucky story. I’m not interested to know!”
The Museum of London's exhibition 'Harry Kane: I want to play football', opens today and runs until the World Cup.
It details his rise with a display of shirts, boots and other personal items from the England captain's career.
Kane, 28, said: "The Museum of London got in touch and wanted a Londoner to inspire young children to be their best so I am delighted to have all my memorabilia on show, with trophies, shirts, golden boots and some personal pieces which haven't been seen publicly before."