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Mauricio Pochettino has called for better communication with international teams concerning injured players after Belgium manager Roberto Martinez discussed Jan Vertonghen's hamstring problem in a news conference. Vertonghen, who limped off at halftime during Saturday's match at Huddersfield, will undergo a second scan on Monday, but Martinez said on Friday morning that Vertonghen is likely to be out until after the November international break. "Jan Vertonghen might miss two Belgium camps," he said. "Bad news." Asked whether he would ask England manager Gareth Southgate to be careful with Harry Winks, who has a chronic ankle problem, the Argentine told reporters: "No. Of course it's so difficult to communicate with all the national teams. "Look at now. Before my press conference you knew about the Vertonghen situation because Roberto told the media in Belgium before us. But in the end it's our player, our Tottenham player, our Tottenham employee. We arrived here and we needed to explain. It's difficult. "They need to call us. They need to call and ask. If they call us, we are more than open to talk and give our opinion. You asked me about Harry Winks -- no-one called me, no-one called [my assistant Jesus Perez]. "I'm not going to [call national team staff]. The natural thing, if they have some doubt, is to call us, not you calling them, because the players are here every day and in the end our job is day by day and for them it's every month, and they have a little bit more time than us to be interested in the player and call us. "I don't want to create a problem but that is the normal behaviour -- that the national team calls you, not that you call and say 'oh, be careful with this or that.' It's like you don't want the player to go to the national team." Pochettino was unsure on when exactly Vertonghen would return to fitness. "We'll see because it wasn't a good injury. We're so disappointed with that but we'll see if it's six weeks or less." Pochettino and Perez have defended their treatment of the centre-back, who played on for half an hour after suffering his injury at the John Smith's Stadium. Perez pointed out that Vertonghen was rested for their Carabao Cup tie against Watford. "Unfortunately, I think it was 15 minutes into the game, he got a knock in his hamstring with [Laurent] Depoitre, the big striker, and he was unbalanced and stretched his leg," Perez said. "In that action he injured the hamstring and then carried on playing for almost half an hour because he thought it was just a knock. "We asked him and we thought he could play. The first action was a contact and it's unusual to get a knock in your hamstring. He was assessed at half-time and as soon as all the information was to prevent any further damage, he was off. "It could take a while because it's not a normal injury, like striking the ball or sprinting." Pochettino said that it is hard being able to judge injuries like this when you are playing. "One component that's important is the adrenaline when you're playing football is so high, and you don't realise [what's happened]," he said. " You run under stress, competing, and when you stop running, you feel it and it's difficult to stop." Tottenham host Cardiff on Saturday, returning to a Wembley pitch which looked badly worn when they faced Barcelona on Wednesday, a fortnight after Anthony Joshua fought at the stadium. "I'm not going to complain," Pochettino said. "Maybe from outside it looks not good, but inside it's OK. It's possible to play football. "If we don't play well it's not because of the pitch. I promise, it's true from the stand it looks difficult to play, but when you're there you can see that it's OK, the pitch to play."
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