On September 1st, Micky van de Ven missed Tottenham Hotspur’s defeat to Newcastle United due to a knee injury. This also forced him to withdraw from the Netherlands squad for this month’s international break.
The centre-back returned to action in Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday and played the full 90 minutes in the north London derby.
Van de Ven was seen with an ice pack after the loss to Arsenal. That’s according to Voetbal Nieuws, who state there is ‘no reason to worry’ about the 23-year-old’s fitness.
The defender has played down any concern over his fitness. He revealed his during a chat with Viaplay Nederland.
“It’s of course nice to be back, important to be back, but of course you want to come back with a win. It’s going well, but the recovery will start before Wednesday,” he said, relayed by Voetbal Nieuws.
Tottenham had more possession and more attempts against Mikel Arteta’s side. The former VfL Wolfsburg says a home defeat to Arsenal “certainly hurts”, especially because he believes his side dominated aspects of the game.
The Gunners were without several key players for the north London derby. Van de Ven has insisted this didn’t ‘create more optimism’ at Tottenham.
“If the absent players had been there, we also had the feeling that it could work. I think we were definitely the better side today and dominated the ball every time: every time the last chance, the last pass, every time it wasn’t [in] the net,” Van de Ven explained.
The Netherlands international has made three appearances for Spurs this season.