Spurs star Cristian Romero hit with extended ban despite serving suspension against Crystal Palace

Kevin Danso deputised for Romero in that Selhurst Park success but the Argentina international returned to the side for the New Year's Day 0-0 draw with Brentford. Romero then kept his place for the 1-1 draw with Sunderland and the 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth on Wednesday night.

Mathys Tel fired Spurs ahead early on at the Vitality Stadium, but Bournemouth when in ahead at the break following goals from Evanilson and Junior Kroupi. Joao Palhinha scored an acrobatic equaliser in the 78th minute, and it looked enough to rescue a point for Thomas Frank's side.

However, Antoine Semenyo fired in a second half injury time winner with his final goal for the Cherries before his move to Manchester City. Semenyo, who has scored 10 league goals this season, completed his switch to the Etihad Stadium on Friday morning.

Spurs, meanwhile, will hope to return to winning ways in the FA Cup on Saturday evening when they face Aston Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but Frank will be unable to call upon captain Romero after the former Atalanta man was handed an additional one-match ban.

A statement on the official Tottenham website read: "Cristian Romero will be unavailable for Saturday’s FA Cup third round tie with Aston Villa. Our captain has been handed a one-match suspension by an Independent Regulatory Commission following a hearing concerning his FA charge on 24 December. He will now be sidelined as we kick-off our 2025/26 FA Cup campaign at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend."

Romero was initially charged by the FA on Christmas Eve in relation to his conduct following his dismissal. "Tottenham Hotspur's Cristian Romero has been charged following their Premier League match against Liverpool on Saturday 20 December," an FA statement read.

"It's alleged that he acted in an improper manner by failing to promptly leave the field of play and/or behaving in a confrontational and/or aggressive manner towards the match referee after being sent off in the 93rd minute. Cristian Romero has until Friday 2 January 2026 to respond."

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Romero recently landed himself in hot water with Spurs for an Instagram post following Wednesday's 3-2 loss to Bournemouth, during which the centre-back looked to take aim at the board. "At times like this, it should be other people coming out to speak, but they don’t – as has been happening for several years now. They only show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies," the post read, though the line regarding "lies" was subsequently deleted.

Following a meeting between Romero, Frank and co-sporting director Johan Lange, however, the Spurs confirmed that the matter has been dealt with internally and without punishment. "He is our captain, he’s not been fined," Frank confirmed. "That’s an internal thing, but we haven’t done that. I think there’s a lot of ways to deal with different situations. We’ve chosen to have a good conversation with him, understand where he stands, handle it internally and that’s everything I have to say."

The Dane added that the social media outburst was a "mistake" and didn't diminish Romero's value as a leader. "I said it when I named him the captain that even though he’s an experienced player, he’s tried a lot, he’s still a young leader. I’m actually very happy with his performance last night, I think he was a true captain in many ways throughout the game. Speaking up at half-time when we were 2-1 down, keep believing, keep doing the right things.

"But also when you’re a young leader sometimes you make a mistake, of course it’s good to keep it internally."

Romero's absence adds to Frank's ongoing woes. The Dane lost both Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur to injury on Wednesday night, while Mohammed Kudus is also out for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, Dominic Solanke, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Destiny Udogie remain sidelined, while Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr are on international duty at AFCON.