The bad news for Tottenham is that they have a whole host of new injury concerns, following the 2-2 draw with Manchester City on Sunday. The good news is that most of their new injury problems are really not that serious. We’ve got five updates to cover: Dominic Solanke, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Djed Spence and Kevin Danso.
All of them, with the exception of Danso, should be in contention to feature at Manchester United on Saturday.
Man United vs Tottenham Hotspur FYIs
Kickoff: Sat. Feb 7, 12:30, Old Trafford, Manchester, UK
Team News: Tottenham Hotspur Man United
Google Result Probability: Tottenham Hotspur 20% Man United 58% Draw 22%
PL Form, Position: Tottenham DLLDD, 29 pts, 14th Man United DDWWW, 41 pts, 4th
Tottenham Team News
So let’s just dive straight in, right away, starting with Solanke, who’s got an ankle/foot problem.
“He clearly also struggled to run, so we knew…before the game, again it would be a big push to play 90 minutes,” Spurs manager Thomas Frank said after the draw with City.
“He’s not there fitness-wise because he’s been out for so long. We’ve been, in a way, a little bit forced to play him.”
Moving on to Romero, he missed out against the blue Manchester club, due to illness; let’s see how he does against the red Manchester team.
“We are assessing him,” Frank said. “Hopefully, he’s fine.”
As for Van de Ven, the timeline on his knock keeps shifting back with him, but Frank did say: “I fully expect him to be available for Man United.”
So let’s see if Frank’s prediction actually holds true this time.
In regards to Spence, Frank said the following on Sunday: “Djed has a minor calf injury. I hope [he] is not too long [out].”
So with that quartet, it’s basically all kind of touch-and-go for Saturday. And then with Danso, Frank said he’s out indefinitely, and he also described the injury in detail:
“He hyper-extended his big toe when he landed on the foot of an opponent vs Frankfurt, that means the ligament snapped in the big toe.
“It’s extremely unlucky; we don’t know the length of it, but we have an appt next week where we can clarify that.”
And then of course, James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall, Ben Davies, Dejan Kulusevski, Pedro Porro, Richarlison, Mo Kudus and Rodrigo Bentancur all remain sidelined as longer-term injury absentees. So there you have it- a team news/injury list that is 13 names long!
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.