It’s recovery day for Tottenham Hotspur after their dramatic 3-0 home win over Qarabag in their first Europa League tie of the new season, a match that saw them play 82 minutes down to ten men after Radu Dragusin picked up an early red card for a DOGSO infraction.
Sky Sports was present at what looked like a cold and rainy Hotspur Way training center to give an update on the team’s preparations for their upcoming Premier League match at Manchester United on Sunday. And there’s good news — the camera panned over and caught an (initially blurry) shot of Richarlison jogging outside with a member of the training staff, suggesting that he’s at least on the road to recovery after sustaining an undisclosed injury at the start of the season.
That’s good news for Tottenham, but they’re still sweating the status of Son Heung-Min. Sonny was subbed off midway through the second half after being attended to by Spurs’ physios, and while he looked fine walking off the pitch, manager Ange Postecoglou didn’t do much to assuage any fears that Son might have picked up a knock.
“I haven’t spoke to him,” Ange said. “He said he felt a bit tired, but I haven’t spoken to him or the medical team yet.”
Initial reports suggested that Ange had said “he felt a bit tight” which is probably what started the injury fears, but “tired” is probably actually what Ange said, and you can understand since Sonny also played significant minutes last weekend as well. We’ll probably get an update on Son when Ange holds his pre-match presser, which could happen today or tomorrow.
After the match, Ange also gave an update on Brennan Johnson, who came off at halftime, and stated conclusively that the Johnson-for-Dejan-Kulusevski sub was planned, and a tactical choice.
“Yeah he’s fine. It was just tactical. I thought we would need Deki Kulusevski because the way the game is going, Deki is a like a hybrid midfielder and can also break out on that right wing. It was just a tactical switch, but Brennan is fine.”
The nature of last night’s match likely meant that more first teamers got minutes than Ange had intended or wanted, and that might have a knock-on effect on team selection for Sunday. But we won’t know that until the lineups are released. It seems reasonable that James Maddison, Pedro Porro, and Cuti Romero will slot back into the lineup as they didn’t play at all against Qarabag. If Sonny needs a rest, Timo Werner could replace him, especially with Wilson Odobert still out with an injury. We could also see Rodrigo Bentancur start in midfield ahead of Yves Bissouma, at least initially. I would imagine Dominic Solanke will continue to start after a strong performance on Thursday night.
UPDATE: Well, that figures. Not five minutes after I post this article, Spurs’ social media channels dropped an update from Ange on Sonny’s status. Basically, he’s a game-time decision.
“Apart from Sonny, everyone’s okay, but I don’t think it’s too bad [with Sonny]. He wants to train tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes in training and make a decision from there. We have another day up our sleeve to give him every chance.”