Ange Postecoglou hopes Cristian Romero is nearly over the toe and hamstring problems which have hampered the Argentine in recent weeks but says Tottenham will give the defender time to return to 100 per cent fitness.
Romero, who this week became a dad for the second time, will miss Spurs' visit to Manchester City on Saturday as he continues to recover from a toe injury and a tight hamstring.
He was forced off in the second halves of the wins over City in the Carabao Cup and Aston Villa, before being replaced at half-time of Argentina's game against Paraguay last week.
Spurs will also be without Micky van de Ven this weekend, leaving Postecoglou without his first-choice centre-backs at the Etihad Stadium for the second year running, but the head coach says the club would rather allow Romero to return to full fitness than risk him against City.
"With us, he hasn’t been fully fit for probably two or three weeks," Postecoglou said. "He’s kind of soldiered on through it because that is the kind of character [he is] … and we kind of needed him but I think when he went away, he kind of realised, this is not healing the way we want it to.
"It’s a couple of separate issues. And I spoke to him and said: ‘Look, just have a break. We need you 100 per cent fit.’ As much as we’d love to have him out there, I think it’s best for him he gets totally over everything. He had the birth of his daughter this week as well which is also a significant event in his life.
"I think it’s important for him to pause a little bit and just spend some time with his family. I think it’s the right thing for him to do.
"One was obviously the knock on his toe which has been a bit troublesome and prior to that he had a bit of a tight hamstring," Postecoglou added.
"It wasn’t a hamstring injury but he was tight. So we’re being careful with him. He’s kind of over both now. But we’ll just wait, rather than throw him back in this weekend. He’d had the birth of his daughter as well, it just felt like we’ll take this time to get him 100 per cent."
Romero sat out Argentina's win over Peru on Wednesday after coming off against Paraguay and Postecoglou admitted he had doubts about the 26-year-old flying to South America for international duty, while insisting he has not returned in a worse condition.
"Yeah, you do [have concerns]," Postecoglou said. "But there’s always a line there, especially with someone like Romero where you’ve got to trust his judgement as well. He understands the responsibility he has.
"Look, he didn’t make it any worse. He just didn’t feel like he could perform at the level he wanted so that’s the reason he came off at half-time. If anything, when he came back, it’s actually improved.
“So it hasn’t made the situation worse for him. I just think he needs to get his body right so he can be at his best."
Postecoglou, meanwhile, has welcome Pep Guardiola's decision to extend his contract as Manchester City boss for a further two seasons.
The Catalan, whose previous deal expired at the end of this term, has led City to the title in six of the last seven seasons but Postecoglou says he is motivated by the challenge of finishing ahead of him.
Asked if part of him wanted Guardiola to stand down to open up the league, Postecoglou said: "I look at it the other way.
"I go, 'imagine if you knock him off'. That'd be something. I'm at the stage of my life where I'd rather have the chance of knocking him off than missing that opportunity. When greatness is around, you want to be around it. And hopefully it challenges you to be like that as well.
"It is a great challenge. But I love the fact that there's a massive target out there that can seem insurmountable. That raises my level and gets me going.
"I lived the experience of equalisation in sport in Australia and it's great from a competitive point of view because everyone believes they can win.
"But after a while I used to get frustrated by it because excellence tends to be capped at a certain point. It's up to everyone else to bridge that gap [to City]. I love the challenge of that and I would never see that as a bad thing."
