Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven’s latest hamstring injury is “not too serious” but is likely to keep him out until after this month’s international break, manager Ange Postecoglou has confirmed.
The Dutch defender left the pitch in tears holding the back of his right leg during the first half of Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup fourth round win over Manchester City after running back to tackle winger Savinho, who was himself later stretchered off with an ankle injury.
Postecoglou confirmed after the game that Van de Ven had felt something in his hamstring and would be assessed, while the player later took to social media on Thursday night to tell fans that he would be “back soon”.
The 23-year-old - who was absent for two months with a hamstring injury suffered against Chelsea last season - is set to be sidelined for Sunday’s visit of Aston Villa to north London and is also likely to miss games against Galatasaray and Ipswich, with Tottenham returning from the next international break with another clash against Manchester City in the top-flight at the Etihad Stadium on November 23 before Serie A giants Roma then come calling in the Europa League.
Postecoglou said that Tottenham captain Heung-min Son should make his return from injury against Villa if he comes through training on Saturday unscathed having missed the games against City, Crystal Palace and AZ Alkmaar after his short-lived return from his own hamstring injury in the win over West Ham, while Cristian Romero and Timo Werner both have a “chance” of making the game after picking up respective knocks in midweek.
Spurs would be without their first-choice centre-back pairing against fourth-place Villa if Romero were to join Van de Ven on the sidelines this weekend, meaning Ben Davies would likely have to partner Radu Dragusin in the heart of defence.
“The boys worked out the other night,” Postecoglou said at Friday’s pre-match press conference. “The main one out of that is Micky. He has strained a hamstring. It is not too serious, but probably after the international break for him.
“The other ones who are a bit sore [are Cristian] Romero and [Timo] Werner. But at the moment there is still a chance for the weekend. Sonny has sort of trained today. If he gets through training tomorrow, he should be okay.”
He added: “He [Van de Ven] was disappointed obviously. He was a bit emotional. But it is certainly not one of the bad ones like last time, which kept him out for quite a while. The international break is an extra two weeks for us, so it hopefully means he doesn’t miss too much football.”
Postecoglou also had a new update on Wilson Odobert, whose return from a month-long hamstring lay-off also proved frustratingly short-lived as he suffered a serious setback last week.
"Because it’s a reoccurrence, we are going to have to be a little bit conservative,” Postecoglou said of the French winger. “I’d say it’s a similar time frame to his last one, maybe a little bit longer.
“But it’s not one of those where you don’t really want to put a time frame on it because it will really depend on how he heals from it."
