The Swedish defender made only his second appearance under new boss Ruben Amorim and first start on Thursday night, having returned to action following a hamstring injury sustained on international duty with Sweden in the Nations League in November with a very late cameo in the derby win over Manchester City last weekend.
Having seemingly proved his fitness, Lindelof was then picked to start alongside Lisandro Martinez and Leny Yoro in the back three for Thursday’s last-eight clash with Spurs, only to sustain another issue and head straight down the tunnel in frustration as he was replaced by Jonny Evans shortly before half-time.
It was the latest setback in a hugely frustrating year for Lindelof, who has spent a lot of time on the sidelines and only made his first appearance of this season in the Premier League in early October.
United now face another anxious wait as they prepare to determine the severity of the former Benfica centre-back’s latest injury, having dealt with multiple absences in defence almost constantly over the last few months.
Noussair Mazraoui was fine to start and play the full 90 minutes against Tottenham after a knock, though midfielder Mason Mount was absent after being forced off early against Manchester City and Luke Shaw remains sidelined after his own recent setback.
Asked for an update on Lindelof on MUTV after the 4-3 defeat in north London in which his side almost staged a remarkable comeback despite trailing 3-0 with less than half an hour to play, Amorim said: “I think he has something we have to assess to say specifically what he has but it’s tough to lose a player.
“They work really hard, they want to return but like I said, the same thing with Luke Shaw, Mason Mount and Vic, they had injuries, they don’t have space to train.
“Just preparing games is not perfect so we’ll try to do it again altogether to have the full squad because with this schedule we need the full squad.”
Meanwhile, Ange Postecoglou has revealed why Timo Werner was absent from the Tottenham squad against Manchester United.
The German international did not even make the bench for Thursday night’s chaotic 4-3 Carabao Cup quarter-final victory for Spurs in north London, an omission that seemed notable given that it came just a week after he was publicly criticised by his manager for an “unacceptable” performance that led to his half-time withdrawal in the 1-1 draw away at Rangers in the Europa League.
Loanee Werner had been in the squad for the game immediately following that trip to Ibrox, coming on for the final 13 minutes of the 5-0 Premier League rout of bottom club Southampton at St Mary’s on Sunday evening.
Some have questioned if Tottenham may yet choose to send the ex-Chelsea forward back to parent club RB Leipzig during the January transfer window, though Postecoglou said last week that he was not even considering that possibility.
And it turns out there is nothing to read into from his omission against United, with Werner not involved due to a bout of illness.
“Yeah, he was sick mate, it's just the way we're going, it's just like he woke up this morning with a fever and the doc went and saw him, he had a high fever and we had to rule him out unfortunately, so it's just the way things are,” Postecoglou said in his post-match press conference.
Tottenham remain in the grip of an ongoing selection crisis caused by a mixture of injuries, illness and suspensions, with Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Destiny Udogie, Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison all missing against United on Thursday.
Asked if Werner joining that list of absentees summed up Spurs’ plight at the moment, Postecoglou responded: “Pretty much, yeah. I mean I don't roll up to game day looking for good news, let me tell you, so yeah, it's just incredible.
“Like I said, this is 10 players off a senior list, and it's just ridiculous and the fact that we're still putting in these levels of performance with guys, Archie [Gray], Djed [Spence], these kind of guys, I mean.
“We're getting, I believe, some real enormous growth in this period that maybe won't be evident until down the track, but I just think there's so much sort of good stuff in there at the moment, even though it's a tough period still.”