Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood believes Andros Townsend has missed out on a great World Cup opportunity.
The 22-year old winger has been ruled out for around 10 weeks with ankle ligament damage following a strong challenge from Stoke City's Erik Pieters in Spurs' 1-0 win on the weekend.
Townsend will now be sidelined in the lead-up to this summer's World Cup meaning he will be unavailable for England selection by Roy Hodgson which Sherwood believes would have been achievable had he remained fit.
"I think he would. He's a maverick of a player is Andros Townsend," he told Sky Sports News.
"I always says to people that Andros can run the ball into the full-back 10 times, it doesn't faze him. On the 11th time, he runs past him, he squares it or scores a goal himself.
"He's a match-winner. He's not fazed at all if things are not going well for him.
"He's single-minded and I'm sure that he's so strong in his mind that he's going to get over this setback and come back strong again. There's plenty more World Cups for Andros Townsend.
"He gives everything in training to make himself better, to try and improve himself. And he will.
"This is a major setback for Andros and he's bitterly disappointed but he has nothing to worry about. He's played a huge part in getting the other 20-odd players on that plane and Roy himself.
"Andros knows that and he'll take that as a positive. On a negative side, he's got to wait another four years for a World Cup."
