Micky van de Ven missed Tottenham’s Premier League clash at Brentford on Sunday – but Ange Postecoglou says he hasn’t suffered a new injury.
Spurs take on the Bees at the G-tech Community Stadium in desperate need of a win having picked up just one point from their last seven league games.
It’ll be a tough task against Brentford who boast one of the best home records in the top-flight this season, so Spurs fans were delighted when Van de Ven returned from injury a few days ago.
The centre-back played 45 minutes of the Europa League win over Elfsborg on Thursday night and was expected to start on Sunday.
But when the lineups were announced, the Dutchman’s name was nowhere to be seen, leading to fears that he’d sustained yet another painful hamstring injury.
That would be especially bad news with Spurs set to take on Liverpool this Thursday in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.
After that they face Aston Villa in the FA Cup and Manchester United in the Premier League.
Thankfully for Tottenham, that does not appear to be the case, with Postecoglou revealing that Van de Ven is just being rested for this match.
‘Just trying to manage his minutes. It’s a quick turnaround,’ the Australian manager said ahead of kick-off.
‘We spoke with the medical team and Micky himself and we’ll give him another week training and hopefully he’ll be ready for the end of the week.’
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With Cristian Romero and Radu Dragusin also sidelined, Spurs’ have been forced to once again play left-back Ben Davies and young midfielder Archie Gray as their centre-back pairing.
In better news, they were able to hijack Wolves’ deal to sign central defender Kevin Danso from Lens and he’ll now move to north London on loan with an obligation to buy.
‘I think Kevin will be a great fit for us. Obviously we’re a bit short at the back and have been for a while,’ Postecoglou added.
‘He’s experienced, a good one-on-one defender and new players give us energy. We’re looking forward to him being part of the group.’
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