Former Tottenham captain Graham Roberts has described Cristian Romero as "vital" - and praised his "immense" recent performance against Everton.

Following a tricky start after his £42.5m move from Atalanta, the centre-back is quickly starting to find his feet in English football.

However, Romero could be set for a spell on the sidelines having suffered an injury whilst playing for Argentina on Tuesday evening.

What happened to Romero?

After playing 90 minutes in Argentina's victory over Uruguay on Friday to secure another three points in their pursuit of World Cup qualification, it looked like being a productive international break for the Spurs defender.

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But just 53 minutes into their crunch clash with South American rivals Brazil, Romero suffered a muscle problem and went down clutching his hamstring.

According to reliable journalist Fabrizio Romano, Romero will undergo a series of scans on the issue to discover the extent of the injury.

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ENTER GIVEAWAY

Tottenham face Leeds this weekend and the 23-year-old would now appear a major doubt for that game along with their Europa Conference League game with Slovenian side Mura four days later.

According to WhoScored, Romero has been Spurs' highest rated centre-back this season (6.75), which is sixth in the overall squad.

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And Roberts knows Romero's importance to Antonio Conte and how big a miss he could be if his scan results return with a negative result.

What did Roberts say?

He told GIVEMESPORT: "Romero's vital for us. I thought he was absolutely immense against Everton, he held the defence together, blocked people, threw bodies in the way. That's how you defend."

How many games could Romero miss?

With the group stages of the respective European competitions drawing to a close and the Carabao Cup quarter finals coming up, Tottenham have 10 matches in the next five weeks.

Depending on the severity of the hamstring problem, Romero could miss anything from a couple of weeks to three months.

Unless he was taken off simply as a precaution, the best-case scenario at this point for Spurs would be two to three weeks, which would see Romero miss Premier League games with Leeds, Burnley, Brentford and Norwich and the Conference League clashes with Mura and Rennes.

Those six games aren't the toughest on paper, but Romero has quickly become Conte's most important defender, so he needs him back fit as quickly as possible.