With Spurs just a point above the bottom three, Defoe can see his former club being relegated.
A former player and coach at Spurs, he told The Sun: “It would be catastrophic, to be fair, if the club got relegated.
“A massive club like Tottenham – you look at the infrastructure and everything that comes about.
“I have been in both situations. Of course, the pressure of trying to win the league or finish in the top four is a lot of pressure.
“But I do feel like it is maybe a different type of pressure when you have maybe not experienced something like this before. It is going to be tough.
"The club has not experienced this before. These players have probably never experienced this before. There are some top players there.
“All the injuries they have had this season…it’s key to get some of those back from now to the end of the season. Hopefully, they can help this team win games."