Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has urged his players to take a "mature" approach to the "prison yard" of social media after an awkward week for Ryan Sessegnon.
Spurs fullback Sessegnon had an operation on his right hamstring on Monday, having previously had surgery on his left hamstring, and issued a warning on his social media channels asking people to "be careful what you say online”.
The 23-year-old Sessegnon has seen his career blighted by injuries, leading to abusive posts on Instagram and Twitter regarding his fitness record.
Postecoglou, speaking ahead of Saturday's Premier League match at home to London rivals Crystal Palace, said: "I guess the easy thing to say is, 'look just stay off social media,' and that's easy for me to say.
‘Walking into a prison yard’
"I can do that but I guess for younger people it's a vehicle for them or a platform for them to have a voice, which I kind of understand.”
The Australian added: "They've also got to be mature enough to also know that sometimes the audience, I think for want of a better term, social media is like walking into the prison yard and saying you're innocent.
"You're not going to get a hell of a lot of sympathy. Most of it is going to be coming back at you.
"If you're kind of prepared for that then (fine), but if you're jumping into there to try and feel good, my sense of it is, I'm not all over it but you'll rarely come away from it feeling really good about yourself.
"Even with the most genuine of reasons for saying what you want to say or putting out what you want to put out. It's just that kind of platform you're invariably going to come away from thinking I probably shouldn't have said anything.”
Sessegnon is set to miss the rest of the season, with Richarlison (knee) also sidelined for the match against Palace as fifth-placed Spurs bid to revive their quest for a Champions League place.
Focus on the league
Early exits from domestic cup competitions leave Tottenham free to concentrate on the league but potentially make it harder for them to reintegrate players returning from injury.
"At the moment, if we get an injury then we're liable to throw in somebody who hasn't played for four or five weeks," said former Celtic boss Postecoglou. "It's not easy on that player.
"Whereas if you've got games, there's a natural rotation that you need to make all the time and also gives you a little bit of rhythm.
"I had the other extreme last year of 60-plus games at Celtic, but I found that a lot easier to manage than having a disrupted season like we've had this year."
AFP