Europa preview: Pilates pillar of Redknapp’s plan to keep Spurs in trim

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp has turned to yoga and pilates classes in a bid to boost the long-term fitness of his squad.

With his team fighting for honours domestically and in the Europa League this year, Redknapp has moved to ease fears about long-term injuries creeping in to his team by employing a yoga guru – the same one Brad Friedel brought to the club following his summer move from Aston Villa.

Friedel, 40, has been using his instructor for nine years, and she now takes classes for the squad, and coaching staff, prior to training. It may be a surprising move by a man considered the most archetypal English manager in the top-flight, but Redknapp revealed himself to be a big fan of the exercises. “It’s fantastic. We have been getting into doing the yoga and I think pilates is just an amazing thing,” the veteran manager said.

“It’s great for the players. They are all doing it now. Brad Friedel started it here. He brought a lady in to start doing the yoga and if it’s good enough for Brad with the shape he’s in at 40, then it’s good enough for the rest of us.”

Despite his good intentions with the yoga, Redknapp is, ironically, facing a major injury crisis in defence ahead of tonight’s Europa League Group A clash against Russian side Rubin Kazan. Sebastien Bassong and Younes Kaboul are Spurs’ only two fit centre-halves after Ledley King joined Michael Dawson, William Gallas and Vedran Corluka on the club’s injury list after going off with a groin tear in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle.

Redknapp is likely to rest the majority of the team that drew at St James Park, with Rose, Andros Townsend, Tom Carroll, Giovani dos Santos and Roman Pavlyuchenko likely to get drafted in while the likes of Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Scott Parker are rested ahead of this weekend’s trip to Ewood Park.

Meanwhile, Group E leaders Stoke are also in action, against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Manager Tony Pulis is poised to make several adjustments – striker Kenwyne Jones, who has been sidelined recently with a hamstring problem, looks set to start, along with defender Huth and goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.

Birmingham are in Belgium to take on Club Brugges, Fulham are away to Wisla Krakow and Shamrock Rovers tackle PAOK Salonika in Greece. Rovers are the first League of Ireland side to progress to the group stages of a major European competition and have suffered back-to-back defeats in their opening Group A fixtures. A 3-0 home reverse to Rubin Kazan kicked off the campaign before a 3-1 loss to Spurs last time out.