Tottenham are bracing themselves for another potentially crippling injury blow after centre-back Radu Dragusin was forced off on Thursday night’s Europa League win over Elfsborg.
The north London outfit booked their place in the last 16 of the competition thanks to debut goals from Dane Scarlett, Oyindamola Ajayi and Mikey Moore as they finished the extended group phase in fourth place.
However, Tottenham look to be facing another potential long-term absentee judging by early indications of Dragusin‘s injury.
The Romania international had replaced the returning Micky van de Ven at half-time of the contest against the Swedish outfit but went down off the ball after a tussle with striker Jalal Abdullai.
He was taken off and replaced by goalscorer Scarlett, with replays showing that Dragusin came down on his knee awkwardly and looked to be in significant pain
Indeed, TNT Sports‘ pundit and Tottenham legend Glenn Hoddle said at the time: “That looks quite serious because look, he plays the ball there and then he’s landed and wow, he holds his knee.”
Spurs currently have nine first-team players sidelined through injury, including defenders Djed Spence, Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie. Keeper Guglielmo Vicario, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner, Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke and James Maddison round out that list – although Spence is expected back this weekend against Brentford.
Speaking on Dragusin’s injury after the match, Postecoglou added: “It is too early to say what it is, we will need to investigate further.
“But it was his knee which is not good.
“We have another game on Sunday. The club will be working hard behind the scenes to see if we can get something done.”
Van de Ven return a huge lift for Tottenham
The return of the hugely influential Van de Ven to the starting XI was a major boost for Postecoglou and Spurs as they look to arrest an alarming slide in the Premier League, with the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against liverpool also on the horizon.
The Dutch defender cruised through the opening 45 minutes against Elfsborg, hardly having to break a sweat as Tottenham dominated without finding an opening goal.
Van de Ven was aggressive and on the front foot though when it came to winning his one-on-one battles, although Postecoglou would probably have wanted to see him in a foot race to check out his fitness fully ahead of the trip to Brentford on Sunday.
Speaking after the match, Postecoglou revealed that it was always his plan to rotate some senior players out at halt-time to rest them up for the weekend.
Indeed, the Spurs boss said: “The three [players substituted – Van De Ven, Heung-min Son and Rodrigo Bentancur] at half-time were all planned, all three are OK. We’ve got a big week coming up and just trying to manage our players.”
“Micky got through it fine, it was always going to be 45 and he felt fine.”