Heung-Min Son, who has missed five of the last six matches, is once again set to be sidelined on Wednesday night when Tottenham Hotspur host Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.
Although he was only meant to miss last Thursday's UEFA Europa League fixture with AZ Alkmaar on precautionary measures, the South Korean captain, who has just been named as the AFC Asian International Player of the Year, also sat out of the lacklustre 1-0 loss against Crystal Palace on the weekend.
On the Spurs captain, Ange Postecoglou had this to say:
"Well he is almost fit but we will probably from our perspective aim him for the weekend. We're quite confident he will be right for the weekend."
Other team news
Aside from the winger missing out, there is one confirmed absentee for Postecglou to contend with.
It's bad news for summer signing Wilson Odobert, who returned from a hamstring injury when he came off the bench in the 87th minute against Alkmaar.
Postecoglou: "The only one missing out, which is a bit of a disappointment is Wilson. He's had a setback during the week and it seems like it's a serious one, so we're waiting for more information."
The Australian Head Coach also explained that the Frenchman's issue was "not exactly the same [injury] but same area."
Elsewhere, there is good news as Djed Spence has returned to training, and all of Sunday's squad came through the match unscathed.
Erik ten Hag sacked
Ange hints at more League Cup rotation
Respectively, Ange Postecoglou made nine and eight changes for the trips to Fulham and Coventry City in this competition over the last two seasons.
Last season at Craven Cottage in Round Two, the decision to heavily rotate cost The Lilywhites, as they crashed out on penalties, and it very nearly backfired again away at the Coventry Building Society Arena in September, with Spurs scoring 87th and 92nd-minute goals to turn the tie around in the nick of time.
This time, despite the stature of the opponents, he has still vowed to continue his Crabao Cup rotation policy.
"We'll do similarly to what we've done in all our mid-weeks games, Europe included, [which] is try to pick a team we think will win the game and take into account we did play Sunday."
"Obviously City played on Saturday so we've got to make sure the players we put out there tomorrow are able to compete physically with what's going to be on the other side of the pitch from us. The good thing is just about the whole squad's had some kind of football so that means whatever changes we make the players coming in are at a good physical level."
Players and staff understand significance of tie
With some supporters seeing this mouthwatering matchup as arguably one of the biggest of the season so far, the Australian was asked whether there had been any signs of players or staff not understanding the importance of the fixture.
"I'm not a supporter of this club, I'm the manager of this football club and I'd hate to think that any supporter of this football club thinks that I try harder in one game than another. Supporters can feel what they like, which is the most important game."
As he did in May - when Spurs lost 2-0 at home to the eventual champions, with many fans urging the team to throw the game on purpose so rivals Arsenal could not win the league - Postecoglou stated that he treats all games equally.
During the defeat, the Aussie angrily raged at a group of fans situated behind the dugout, with it emerging they were continuously telling him to lose. He wasn't a fan of the atmosphere in the ground that night either.
In his post-match press conference in May, he furiously stated that "the last 48 hours to me have revealed the foundations are pretty fragile."
And again, five months later, he has rectified that he poses the same outlook on all fixtures.
"It would be the biggest injustice for me as a manager if I said, 'We're going to try harder tomorrow than we do at the weekend or we did last weekend'.
It doesn't work that way. You need to separate supporters of a football club with people who have the responsibility of representing it. Our responsibility lies with trying to be the best we can be everyday for our supporters, for everyone who's part of this football club. It's not about trying to gain brownie points."
Reaction to Palace defeat
Once again, Ange Postecoglou has urged that his players must stick to the principles, rather than immediately chase a reaction following another poor showing.
"I don't think it is about a reaction. It's fairly understandable that the players and everyone was disappointed with the way things went for us at Palace, both performance and outcome, but we've got to get away from this reactions and trying to atone for something.
Part of the process for us is making sure every game we stick to our principles irrespective of what has happened in the past. If you wait for reactions for good performances, you're actually anticipating another challenge when you should just be trying to focus on consistency in performance and consistency in mentality of how we approach every game."
Erik ten Hag sacked
In the buildup to his side's match agans West Ham on Sunday, former Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag stated that he denies and ignores their 3-0 hammering by Tottenham "because the red card was overturned."
Just days later, the Dutchman was sacked and Spurs boss Postecoglou was quizzed on whether he was shocked by the former Ajax man's departure.
"Nah, not really shocked. Disappointing as it was, it was almost inevitable with the scrutiny he had. It is just the nature of football these days."
The former Celtic manager was also asked to describe the scrutiny that Premier League bosses face on a day-to-day basis.
"I have said in the past that it is becoming more and more difficult to do the role in any kind of processed way. It is just the nature of what we do these days.
It seems like, if you look at Erik he was there for two and a bit years. He won a trophy in each year, they finished third in his first year. I don’t know if he was here with that record would he have lost his job? I don’t know. Would he be under the same scrutiny? I don’t know."
Since arriving in N17, the Australian has stressed the importance that he is here to deliver silverware, and he may get a very good chance to do this season, with his side fighting on both the continental and domestic stage. A victory on Wednesday would see the favourites knocked out early, and would open up a very nice route to a first trophy in over sixteen years.