Tottenham Hotspur's injury crisis meant manager Ange Postecoglou was forced to field Romanian Radu Dragusin against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday despite his struggling with an ankle knock.
Speaking after his side's 2-2 draw in the Premier League, Postecoglou painted a grim picture of the club's plight with left back Destiny Udogie the latest casualty.
"Well we had no choice, if Radu doesn't play, I don't know who plays. He wasn't 100 per cent, but he felt he could get through with his ankle," Postecoglou told reporters.
Dragusin, who suffered an injury against Nottingham Forest on Thursday, is currently the only available centre back at the club with Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies all injured and still weeks away from a return.
"There's no choice, but it's not a risk. I mean it's a judgment call. It's not like it's a muscle injury, it's a knock on his ankle, but yeah, we're making decisions," said Postecoglou, whose side are down in 11th place.
"We've got no choice unless I throw another 18- or 17-year-old out there. That's the only fit players we have."
Tottenham are also missing the likes of striker Richarlison, winger Wilson Odobert and first-choice keeper Guglielmo Vicario and will be without midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur for next weekend's home clash with Newcastle United after he picked up a fifth booking of the season to trigger a one-game ban.
Udogie also went off in the 50th minute with a muscular injury, adding to Postecoglou's woes.
"I think it was a hamstring. Again, we've been relying on a core group of players because we just haven't had the ability to rotate so at some point it was going to catch up with us. Unfortunately it caught up with Destiny," Postecoglou said.
Tottenham have now won only once in their last seven Premier League games and will finish a year lower than seventh for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
They conceded early against Wolves - the 15th time this year they have fallen behind at home in a Premier League game. But goals by Rodrigo Bentancur and Brennan Johnson got them ahead by halftime, only for Norwegian substitute Jorgen Strand Larsen's late effort to deny them a much-needed win.
"It's a disappointing outcome. Obviously we went a goal down but after that I felt we controlled the game. It wasn't easy always to get openings but we did look pretty threatening every time we did get forward," Postecoglou said.