Bale set to miss Milan trip

Tottenham head for the San Siro on Tuesday night on the back of three successive Premier League victories after Saturday evening's 2-1 win at Sunderland. Rafael van der Vaart, who missed the game at the Stadium of Light with a calf injury, should be fit. But Bale, despite recovering well from his back problem, is unlikely to make the trip. Redknapp said: "Gareth is not too far away. He's not going to be fit, I don't think, for Tuesday, but he's not too bad. "The specialists have seen it, he's had an epidural injection. Peter Crouch has had the same problem and he is fine - in fact, his back looked a lot worse on the scan. "He shouldn't be too long, but Tuesday may be just a bit too soon for him. But van der Vaart should be okay. "You saw what Gareth did against Inter Milan, when he terrorised them, really, and that would be in their minds an awful lot, I'm sure, if you asked them. "Everybody in Italy talks about Bale - I went over and watched a game and everyone was asking me: 'Is Bale fit? Is Bale fit?'. "He would scare them to death, for sure." Spurs had to come from behind to beat the Black Cats, who took an 11th-minute lead when, with William Gallas off the pitch changing his boots, record signing Asamoah Gyan span expertly on Kieran Richardson's low cross and fired past Heurelho Gomes for his 10th goal of the season. Redknapp said: "I was upset about it and I told William at half-time. "He had had an injection in his ankle before the game and they bandaged his ankle maybe too tight and he was in a lot of pain. He felt his boots were too tight on him. "It's a changing game. If I tell you some of the players have 40 or 50 pairs of boots now at the training ground - you used to get two pairs at the start of the year and that was it, didn't you? "But now, you have never seen so many boots, yellow, pink, green, whatever they are. "His boots were hurting his foot, so he had to change his boots." The lead lasted until the 44th minute when Michael Dawson was allowed to meet Steven Pienaar's corner in front of goal and with Gallas blocking keeper Craig Gordon's view, the ball ended up in the back of the net. The winner came 12 minutes after the break as Kranjcar once again produced something special after his winning effort against Bolton last weekend. He latched on to John Mensah's clearing header to thump a right-foot volley past Gordon and into the bottom corner to ease Spurs ahead of Chelsea in the race for a top-four finish. Redknapp said: "It's wide open still. It is going to be tight, it's going to be tough. Obviously they are a top side, but we got fourth place last year and we are right in there. "There are six teams, I think, in the race - Liverpool are the other team. Ourselves and Liverpool are pushing. "It's not impossible for them. They have been on a good run and they are getting themselves in there, so there are six teams and we are certainly right in there with every chance." The result came as a fresh disappointment to opposite number Steve Bruce, who suffered a third consecutive league defeat for the first time in his reign on Wearside. He said: "The frustration is the manner of the first goal, which changed the game. It put us on the back foot again. "It was a simple set-piece - it wasn't even a great delivery and we didn't do our job properly again. "Titus [Bramble] switched off and gave the fella a free header and for me, the goalkeeper has to do better also."