Dominic Solanke, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero are all back after injuries to join Tottenham in the Netherlands but Ange Postecoglou has ruled Dejan Kulusevski out until after the international break with a nagging foot injury that needs rest.
‘Nothing serious, nothing surgical,’ was his verdict on Sweden forward Kulusevski who has been his best and most consistent player this season.
Solanke has been out for seven weeks with a knee injury.
Van de Ven has been troubled by hamstring problems since October and Romero has not played since December.
‘They’ve all out for significant amount of time so we’ll see when we reintroduce them but they’re all here and training, so we’ll make decisions after that,’ said the Spurs boss.
As for Romero’s call-up by Argentina, he added: ‘Clubs don’t have any control on where their players go.
Spurs players pictured training in the Netherlands on the eve of their game at AZ Alkmaar
Star centre back Micky van de Ven (right) is one of three players ready to return from injury
‘At the end of the day, if he’s fit, then him getting some games is good for us because he’s missed a lot of football.
‘We can’t dictate to players whether they should go with their national teams or not. I never have and that’s been my view my whole career.’
Tottenham face AZ Alkmaar in the last 16 of a competition they have to win if Postecoglou is to make good on his claim that he never fails to win a trophy in his second season at a club.
‘It’s a competition we obviously want to do well in,’ said Postecoglou.
‘We’ve got ourselves in a good position, we’re in the round of 16. We’ve got two tough games against AZ and that’s the first thing to overcome.
‘We started the season feeling pretty good about where we were at, but obviously it hasn’t transpired that way. You just don’t know.
‘Certainly, a combination of things, players, significant players coming back for us but also just having the opportunity to train with the whole group has been really valuable to us.
But Dejan Kulusevski will miss Thursday night’s Europa League match due to a foot problem
‘The time off and players coming in, having time off and scheduling things better, means we’re in a good place certainly to tackle things ahead, so certainly from that perspective.
‘Probably a month back we were really struggling, with no players and no recovery, so from our perspective the past few weeks have really been good for training, recovery and just the level of intensity we can put into preparing for games.’
Spurs are favourites the beat Alkmaar over two legs, the second of which will take place in north London next week.
The winners will progress to the quarter-finals, where they will face either Ajax or Eintracht Frankfurt.
Leave a Reply