Thomas Frank feels Tottenham are “cursed” with injuries after confirming Lucas Bergvall may face an extended period on the sidelines.
The 19-year-old midfielder will miss Saturday’s Premier League trip to Burnley after sustaining an ankle injury in Tuesday’s Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund, and there are fears at the club that he could be out for several months.
Bergvall’s injury is the 19th at Tottenham this season, the joint-highest with Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds. Spurs have lost players for the second-most days to injury at 625, slightly behind Newcastle’s 640.
Frank is missing eight first-team players through injury, with Mohammed Kudus, Rodrigo Bentancur, Richarlison, Ben Davies and Bergvall picking up serious problems in their past five matches. James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski have not played all season but the club did confirm the £13m signing of Brazilian full-back Souza from Santos on Thursday.
In better news for Frank, Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie and Xavi Simons emerged unscathed from the victory over Dortmund that eased some pressure on the head coach, and the midfielder João Palhinha should also be fit to face Burnley.
“It seems like we are cursed or something like that,” Frank said, “but injuries are a part of football. We keep being very unlucky with injuries, and it looks like Lucas could be a longer one. He’s being assessed and we will know more in the next couple of days.”
At this stage last season Spurs had sustained more injuries than any other Premier League club. After 22 games the tally was 25 injuries and they had lost 707 days to injury, but Frank said he had no issues with the medical department.
“In my third year in the Premier League with Brentford we had a horrendous year and it impacted on the season,” he said. “We always look what we can do to avoid it. How can we make sure we do the maximum to get players back as quickly as possible? There are a lot of moving parts, the match schedule, the amount of games, but we’re not the only club struggling with injuries. Overall I’m very happy with medical and performance departments. We’ve made progress made this year.”
Frank had arrived from his second lunch of the week with the Tottenham chief executive, Vinai Venkatesham, and director Nick Beucher, with the mood at the club’s training ground significantly more relaxed than after last weekend’s Premier League home defeat by West Ham.
Perhaps emboldened by feeling more secure over his future Frank encouraged the club to offer a new deal to Micky van de Ven, who is under contract until 2029 but is attracting interest from Liverpool.
“Micky is definitely a player we should prioritise, definitely a key player for this team and this club and hopefully for many years to come,” Frank said. “He has what it takes to be an even better player, and I’ve no doubt he can help to get us to where we want to be in the future.”
Asked whether an offer of £100m would force Tottenham to consider selling, Frank said: “I would say he’s very important for us, so Micky is a Tottenham player now and for the future.”
