Tottenham Hotspur defenders Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero should return from injury issues for their Europa League last-16 first leg.
Romero has been absent since the 4-3 defeat by Chelsea on December 8, while Van de Ven last played in the Europa League league-phase win over Elfsborg on January 30. That was the Dutchman’s first appearance since that Chelsea game.
Earlier on Friday, Tottenham were drawn against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League round of 16. That match will be played on Thursday, March 6, with Spurs facing Ipswich Town on Saturday and Manchester City next Wednesday beforehand.
“No new concerns,” head coach Ange Postecoglou told a news conference on Friday. “From last week, everyone got through OK. The three guys who picked up a knock last week (Kevin Danso, Son Heung-min, Rodrigo Bentancur) are all good. They’ve had a full week to recover. The other guys are ticking along.
“We’ve got two games in quick succession in the league. It’s an opportunity for us to get some match minutes in the guys who’ve been out for a while.
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“We saw Brennan (Johnson) and Wilson (Odobert), Vic (Guglielmo Vicario) come back last week, Destiny (Udogie) as well. We need to get them some match minutes and these two games give us the opportunity to do that.
“Then we’ve got a week before the first Europa game. A weekend off. That’s about the time guys like (Cristian) Romero and Micky (van de Ven), they should be in and around that sort of mark. Richy (Richarlison) and Dom (Solanke) not too far behind.
“(After that) we’ve got two games until the international break. We’re kind of mapping it out and trying to navigate a way where we can have as fit and healthy a squad as we’ve had all year for the run-in.”
Spurs travel to Ipswich having won their last two Premier League games. Postecoglou’s side are 12th in the league, 11 points behind seventh-placed Newcastle United.
(Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
