Watford midfielder Will Hughes to miss Tottenham clash with hamstring injury

Watford midfielder Will Hughes is expected to miss Saturday's (2 December) Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur after suffering a fresh injury.

Hughes, 22, did not appear in the Premier League until October but has quickly become an integral member of Marco Silva's first-team since that introduction. After scoring in back-to-back victories against West Ham United and Newcastle United the midfielder has been widely praised with calls for an England call-up quickly emerging.

Hughes started his fourth match of the season against Manchester United on Tuesday [27 November], with Jose Mourinho's side blowing the Hornets away with a superb first-half performance where they took a three-goal lead.

But just 13 minutes into the second-half, Hughes pulled up with a hamstring injury that brought his evening to a premature end with Roberto Pereyra onto replace the England Under-21 international.

Manager Marco Silva was asked for an update in his post-match press conference, all but confirming the midfielder will miss the visit of Tottenham.

"Will has injured his hamstring, it looks difficult for the next game," Silva told reporters, the Herefordshire Mercury report.

Despite that loss to United, Watford will welcome Spurs to Vicarage Road as the more in-form side with Mauricio Pochettino's side stumbling in recent weeks. The north Londoners have just one win in their last five Premier League matches, beating just Crystal Palace in that run and losing to United and Arsenal with a third defeat coming against Leicester City on Tuesday.

Tottenham have already dropped out of the top four at the expense of the Gunners and could find themselves in seventh place by Wednesday night should Arsene Wenger's side and Burnley both win on Wednesday [29 November].

Watford are now just three points adrift of last season's runners up and can move level with a win on Saturday [2 December].