Ange Postecoglou has admitted that Micky van de Ven’s injury is “a bit of a slow burner”, amid uncertainty over when the centre-back will return to the Tottenham Hotspur team.
Van de Ven played 45 minutes last week against Elfsborg in the Europa League, his first appearance after almost two months out with a hamstring injury. But plans for him to feature against Brentford last Sunday were scrapped, and he did not play against Liverpool on Thursday.
Postecoglou was asked at his Friday morning press conference whether Van de Ven would return to face Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon. And he said no. “Micky probably is going to be a bit of a slow burner,” Postecoglou added.
Postecoglou spoke earlier this week about how carefully Van de Ven is being managed, with Tottenham especially keen that he does not suffer a new injury. The last time the 23-year-old returned from an injury lay-off, against Chelsea in December, he played for longer than was planned and suffered a new hamstring injury.
But Postecoglou’s answer on Friday suggested that there are other recovering players who are now closer to a first-team return than Van de Ven himself, even though the defender played 45 minutes last week.
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“The ones who are definitely close,” Postecoglou said, “are guys like [Guglielmo] Vicario, Destiny [Udogie], Wilson [Odobert], Madders [James Maddison], Brennan [Johnson] at a stretch. They should all be back by midweek next week in terms of training, or the week after. Over the next two weeks, they should all be available.”
After Sunday’s FA Cup fourth round game at Aston Villa, Tottenham have a rare clear midweek before they face Manchester United at home in the league next Sunday. Then they have another clear midweek, before travelling to Ipswich Town.
Postecoglou hopes that over the course of those two weeks he recovers the players he is missing at the moment. Vicario has been out since November with a broken ankle, Udogie for the last six weeks with a hamstring injury, Odobert for more than three months after hamstring surgery, Maddison for two weeks with a calf injury, Johnson for three weeks with a calf injury.
“It is the start of next week where we’re still hopeful we’ll get at least two, maybe three back for the Man United game,” Postecoglou said. “We’ve got two full weeks of training, which I think over these two weeks we’ll get the majority of the players back with a bit of luck, provided we don’t lose anyone else, like we lost Richarlison last night. I knew this week was going to be a challenging week in terms of personnel, because we just weren’t going to get anyone back, so there’s no sort of disappointment that anyone missed out.”
Richarlison suffered a calf injury at Anfield which means Postecoglou will be without both of his centre-forwards on Sunday, meaning Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski or Mathys Tel will have to play up front.
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(Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
