Dejan Kulusevski is likely to miss the next four Tottenham Hotspur games due to a ‘knock on the foot,’ according to Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou.
The Sweden international has been carrying the injury in recent games but his manager says he can no longer continue to play with the discomfort.
The 24-year-old has not travelled for the Europa League clash with AZ on Thursday night and will probably not be involved again this month.
Postecoglou says Kulusevski will probably return after the international break, which means he will also miss the second leg against AZ in north London. He will also sit out Premier League meetings with Bournemouth and Fulham coming in the next two weeks.
‘Unfortunate for Deki, hes played probably as many minutes as anybody this year,’ said Postecoglou of Kulusevski. ‘He got a bit of a knock on the foot, he’s not really sure which game it was.
‘It’s been sore for a couple of weeks, but he has been able to train and play but we just felt it wasn’t getting better.
‘He’s unlikely to be back before the international break. It’s nothing serious, it’s nothing surgical or anything but he hasn’t travelled.’
There is much better news elsewhere on the injury front for Spurs as Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke could all feature on Thursday night at AZ.
How involved they will be involved is unclear, with Postecoglou saying: ‘We’ll see. All three have been training with us and training well, so they’re here and they’ll train and be involved tomorrow and I’ll decide whether they get significant match minutes or not.
‘It’s great to have them back and it’s been great to have them back at training, they feel good. They’ve been pretty frustrated they’ve not been able to help and now they’re in a position where they can. ‘
After a season plagued by injury, the situation is improving, with the Spurs boss praising the efforts of recently returned players including Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert and James Maddison.
‘In the last few weeks we’ve had Vic, Detiny, Wilson and Madders all come back and we’ve seen the impact that they’ve had,’ he said. ‘So I’m sure the guys coming back now will have an equally important impact.’
AZ came through a knockout play-off against Galatasaray to book their clash with Tottenham in the last 16 of the Europa League.
However, they are coming off a defeat to Heerenveen at the weekend which left them sixth in the Eredivisie.
Tottenham’s loss to Manchester City last time out left them 13th in the Premier League, so neither team is flying into this one in top form.
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