According to the Evening Standard, Tottenham are becoming increasingly convinced that defender Micky van de Ven will not need surgery to repair his hamstring.
The defender, who was bought from Wolfsburg, injured his hamstring when sprinting for a ball during Chelsea’s 4-1 defeat.
He sustained a similar injury while playing for the German national team that required roughly 10 weeks to heal, but Spurs are optimistic that he will not need that long to heal and will hunt for a way to avoid surgery.
What is unknown is how long he will be out, with games against Wolves and Astonton Villa looming.Spurs will also be without Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero, who were both sent off in the defeat to Chelsea, and will instead rely on the already injured Eric Dier and youngster Ashley Phillips, who was signed from Blackburn earlier this summer.
There is still uncertainty over the fitness of creative powerhouse James Maddison, who was also substituted despite manager Ange Postecoglou’s admission that it was simply precautionary:
“He got a knock on the ankle, and we were already down one man,” he told reporters. At that moment, it made reasonable to make a few tweaks.”
Spurs have had a fantastic start to life under Ange Postecoglou, but it will be interesting to see how they respond to their first league defeat of the season.
