A 5.9 magnitude earthquake occurred on New Zealand’s North Island early Saturday morning, just hours after the Tottenham Hotspur squad touched down for their pre-season tour. The seismic event was recorded at 4:51 am local time (5:51 pm BST on Friday) near the town of Taumarunui, roughly 146 miles south of Auckland, where the team is currently based.
While the earthquake was classified as “severe” by the tracking service Geonet, there have been no reports of injuries or major infrastructure damage, though authorities have identified some minor road damage. Tottenham players, who are stationed nearly 150 miles (240km) away from the epicenter, would not have felt significant tremors, though they reportedly received mobile notifications warning them of the incident.
Residents in the region have been advised by authorities to remain alert for potential aftershocks throughout Saturday, with some locals describing it as the strongest tremor they have experienced in some time.
Tottenham is scheduled to spend the upcoming week in the country to play pre-season friendlies against Auckland FC, Sydney, and London rivals Chelsea. The match against reigning A-League champions Auckland FC is set to take place at Eden Park in the early hours of Sunday morning for viewers in the UK.
The traveling squad is missing several key players; Xavi Simons, Mohamed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski, and Wilson Odobert remained at home to focus on injury rehabilitation.
Additionally, six other players, including club captain Cristian Romero and England’s Djed Spence, were granted extra time off following their participation in World Cup campaigns. New Zealand experiences approximately 14,000 earthquakes annually, though the vast majority are too small to be felt by the public.
Beyond the tour, Tottenham Hotspur are in the running to recruit this Real Madrid winger, a move that could prove a good fit for De Zerbi. Predicting which clubs the summer's biggest free agents will sign for remains a key talking point, as does the recent controversy regarding why James Maddison was not awarded a penalty against Leeds, an incident for which the Premier League issued a statement.
The earthquake was detected on Saturday at 4.51am local time (5.51pm BST on Friday) near the town of Taumarunui.
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