Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou have been told Micky van de Ven should be able to feature in less than a week if his latest issue is just hamstring tightness. The Netherlands international was surprisingly named in the starting XI for the Premier League clash against Chelsea having missed the last five weeks with injury.
Cristian Romero was also back in the team following a spell out but he lasted just 15 minutes before going off injured and being replaced by Radu Dragusin. His withdrawal was the first of two injury blows for Postecoglou with Brennan Johnson and Van de Ven also forced off.
Following the 4-3 defeat, the Spurs boss was able to provide an update on the trio. "Romero is just obviously hugely disappointing. He felt something in his quad," Postecoglou admitted in his post-match press conference.
"He trained really well but, you know, it's just like I said, the way the season's going for us unfortunately. So we just have to wait and see. Brennan just didn't feel well. He didn't feel well at half-time, but he wanted to give it a go, but he just wasn't feeling 100% so I had to take him off.
"The plan was always for Micky to play 60/70 [minutes] today. Obviously, I thought Romero would be okay to play 90, but Micky, probably 60/70. So we were always going to take him off. He didn't feel anything significant. He just felt tightness, but we were always going to take him off anyway."
With that in mind, the hope is Van de Ven has not suffered another hamstring having already been forced to miss action because of issues in that area on three separate occasions since joining Spurs just under 18 months ago.
If Postecoglou is correct in his verdict about it just being tightness, a return could arrive as early as Thursday's clash against Rangers in the Europa League, as per injury analyst on X @physioscout. "Micky van de Ven came off in the second half after suffering hamstring tightness," he wrote in a post following Tottenham's 4-3 defeat to the Blues.
"He has had recent hamstring issues, and is coming back from injury. Ange stated he was always going to come off halfway through the second half, which explains his substitution. More of a load management issue than anything major.
"Recovery Time: Less than a week However, I wouldn't be surprised if he's taken off around the same time in future Spurs matches." Given the issues he has faced, it seems unlikely he will be risked against Rangers especially with big home games against Liverpool and Manchester United later this month.
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