Tottenham return to Premier League action this lunchtime as they face Newcastle United. Spurs are without a win in three while their upcoming opponents at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have secured victory in all of their last five games and in the process, conceded just one goal.
Injuries have significantly impacted Ange Postecoglou throughout the 2024/25 season - with Destiny Udogie the latest to fall victim to a muscular issue. "So there's Destiny obviously with these hamstring [vs Wolves] you know," he said on Friday. "It looks around the sort of six-week mark for him missing."
The Lilywhites will also be without the likes of Micky van de Ven, Rodrigo Bentancur, Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Wilson Odobert and to add to his woes, some players could be absent for a very different reason.
When discussing team news, Postecoglou said: "We had a bit of an illness bug running through the squad as well, so a few missing training, but that's alright, we'll be okay." With the Spurs manager still tight-lipped on the players impacted most by the illness, it's unclear exactly how many will miss out.
While unconfirmed, the talk circulating on social media is that Archie Gray, Radu Dragusin, Fraser Forster and James Maddison have all missed training recently. Postecoglou later confirmed the latter of those names was absent from the start against Wolves last weekend for this exact reason.
"He [Maddison] was due to play last week, but he was sick, so I had to change the team on the day and leave him on the bench. He was ill on the day so..." he explained. Despite that, both Dragusin and Maddison have hinted they will be involved on Saturday and given the possible absentees, it's very likely they will be needed.
On Friday evening, via their Instagram stories, the Spurs duo posted pre-match graphics to their respective social media accounts, which certainly suggests they will at the very least be in the squad.
If the four names above said to have been hit with illness can't feature, Postecoglou may be forced into starting a makeshift centre-back partnership of Alfie Dorrington and Yves Bissouma with Brandon Austin in goal. If Maddison is absent, there are far more suitable replacements with it likely Lucas Bergvall comes in.