Mauricio Pochettino, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, has said that Rochdale’s sand-covered pitch is not fit to host their fifth-round match later this month.

Spurs are due to travel to Spotland on Sunday week after Rochdale defeated Millwall in an FA Cup replay on Tuesday. Neil Harris, the Millwall manager, said after the game the pitch was the worst he had ever seen.

And Pochettino, who has seen pictures of the surface, believes both sets of players would be at risk of injury if they were to play at Spotland.

The Spurs manager also called on the Football Association to assess the surface before allowing any match to take place.

“I think the FA need to assess how the pitch is and then to take a decision about if it’s good for the FA Cup, good for the players, good for the teams to play in this type of pitch,” Pochettino said. “In that condition I think it does not help football.