Eric Dier hopes he’s over what he describes as ‘the most difficult four months of my career’.

The midfielder was back in the starting line-up at Manchester City after an unfortunate run of illness and injury restricted him to six appearances and just three starts in our previous 26 matches between 15 December and the Etihad on Saturday.

Eric, 25, initially suffered a bout of Appendicitis in December and was then laid low by Tonsillitis in January. He’d played just twice on his return in March when he injured his hip on England duty.

You can only imagine how frustrating this all was for a player who has shown incredible consistency in his Spurs career. A brief look at his statistics tell the story – in the previous three seasons, Eric featured in 146 of our 161 matches in all competitions. Add in his first campaign in 2014/15 and this season and he’s up to 206 appearances for us.