SAM Allardyce fears he may not know until the last minute whether Wanderers' Premiership game at Spurs will fall victim to the threatened players' strike.

The Reebok boss hopes the issue will be resolved before the December 3 fixture, which has been selected as a Sky Sports showpiece, but admits he is in the dark over the fate of the game.

"I reckon it's going to be an 11th hour job," he suggested. "We are going to be one of the first to take action but we don't know at this stage whether or not the game will go ahead."

Allardyce chooses not to express his personal opinions on the dispute, although he has spoken in support of the PFA in recent weeks. Instead, he insists that, as a manager, he has been caught in the middle of a row he describes as "very disturbing".

"It's difficult for me to take one side or the other," he explains. "I'm the man in the middle but I'm finding it very difficult to plan anything, wondering what will happen by December 1.

"I hope it will be sorted out by then but some of the stuff I've heard coming out of people's mouths is very, very worrying.

"People's livelihoods in football are at stake. Fortunately it hasn't distracted the players from the training for tomorrow's game."

Wanderers skipper Gudni Bergsson - a former Spurs player - is optimistic the matter will be resolved in time for the White Hart Lane game to be played as scheduled. "We'll be going down there," the qualified lawyer predicted. "I'm confident it will go ahead."

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