Tottenham set for injury boost ahead of Manchester United clash

Tottenham are set to be boosted by the return of several key figures for Sunday’s visit of Manchester United.

Spurs were without 11 players for last weekend’s FA Cup exit at Aston Villa, but boss Ange Postecoglou has worked with Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert and Brennan Johnson in training this week.

Italy international Vicario has not featured since he fractured his ankle in the 4-0 win at Manchester City on November 23 and Postecoglou has used three different goalkeepers during the ensuing three-month period.

“It’s been a good week, fair to say, in terms of the health and well-being of the group of young men I look after,” Postecoglou smiled.

“The guys who have been playing have benefited from a couple of days off.

“On the injury front, good to have some significant players back for training purposes to start with because it raises the quality and level of our training, but in terms of helping us Vicario, yes trained really well and good to go.

“Madders is good to go. Then we’ve had Destiny, Wilson and Brennan training with the group and they’re in a good space as well, so it’s been a good training week.”

Spurs remain without Micky van de Ven (hamstring), Radu Dragusin (knee), Cristian Romero (groin), Richarlison (calf), Timo Werner (hamstring) and Dominic Solanke (knee) for Sunday’s visit of 13th-placed United.

Postecoglou has defended Tottenham’s approach with Van de Ven following a lengthy lay-off but revealed the Dutch defender has been assessed externally.

While Van de Ven insisted he felt fine after the victory, he has remained sidelined during a crucial run of fixtures where Spurs were knocked out of the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but Postecoglou has explained why such a slow approach has been taken with the 23-year-old.

“We’ve had a couple of people externally have a look at him and give him some guidance and information – and to our staff as well – about things he can do differently which will help him as much around not the injury, but making sure his body is better equipped to handle the kind of athlete he is,” Postecoglou said.

“You know whilst it may look with Micky like we had a false start with the Elfsborg thing, I think it gave us an indication of where he is at.

“We could have pushed on absolutely and we could have pushed on with Romero, but my view is let’s get them back and get them back right until the end of the season so we give them a chance as well to make a contribution to hopefully a strong finish for us.

“(Micky) was frustrated but I had a good chat to him. I guess he just wanted to keep going but I said to him he’s still got a 10-year career ahead of him and once he’s well into his career and flying, this period will seem insignificant, an extra two or three weeks, for the benefit hopefully of him coming back and playing to the levels.

“He’s a big part of this football club, not just now but for the future as well. It’s in our interests, you’ve always got to protect your assets and he’s a major asset to this football club. His career is much more important than one or two weeks of doing some extra work.”

On Romero, Postecoglou added: “With Cuti, it’s just healing slower than we thought it would.”