New Zealand rocked by 'severe' earthquake hours after Tottenham arrive for pre-season | OneFootball

Tremors hit some 150mi south of Spurs’ Auckland base

New Zealand’s North Island was hit by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake a matter of hours after Tottenham arrived for their pre-season tour.

Roberto De Zerbi’s men will spend the next week down under to contest pre-season friendlies against Auckland, Sydney, and London rivals Chelsea.

But mere hours after they touched down on Saturday morning, tens of thousands of locals reported feeling an earthquake which had hit 146 miles south of Auckland.

No injuries or major damage have yet been reported as a result of the quake, though minor road damage has been noted.

The earthquake was detected on Saturday at 4.51am local time (5.51pm BST on Friday) near the town of Taumarunui.

Tottenham are based nearly 150mi (240km) further north and would not have felt any strong tremors, but players will have received notifications on their phones warning of the earthquake.

Earthquakes are common in New Zealand, with 14,000 reported every year on average, most of which are too small to be felt.

This particular quake was labelled as ‘severe’ by tracking service Geonet. Authorities have warned locals to remain wary of aftershocks throughout Saturday.

Some locals were quoted in the local press as saying it was the strongest quake they had felt for some time.

Tottenham face the reigning A-League champions Auckland FC at Eden Park in the small hours of Sunday morning for UK viewers.

De Zerbi has left a handful of first-team players at home, with Xavi Simons, Mohamed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski and Wilson Odobert all staying behind to work on their injury rehabilitation.

A further six players, including club captain Cristian Romero and England’s Djed Spence, have been handed further time off following their World Cup campaigns.