Ange Postecoglou reports no further injury concerns from Sunday’s 3-1 win against Southampton as we prepare for a huge UEFA Europa League quarter-final, first leg against Eintracht Frankfurt at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday evening (8pm UK).
Richarlison made a welcome return to the bench against Southampton, meaning only Dejan Kulusevski, Kevin Danso – both of whom Ange quoted were ‘a couple of weeks away’ last week – and longer-term Radu Dragusin remain sidelined.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference at Hotspur Way on Wednesday, Ange said: “Everyone is good from the weekend from a physical standpoint. That’s a good place to be for us, there haven’t been that many occasions where that’s happened this year, so from that point of view, it’s good.”
Ange was later asked if he had a dilemma on his hands with Wilson Odobert netting twice in the Round of 16, second leg against AZ Alkmaar and then Brennan Johnson back in the side and scoring twice against Southampton – he now has 16 for the season.
Ange said: “Part of the strategy leading into this was that was we had quite a few players who were coming back from long-term injuries including Wilson, Destiny (Udogie), Micky (van de Ven), (Cuti) Romero, I could keep going, and we had to use games where we needed those guys to play, because otherwise, if I just kept playing Brennan, we’d be at a point now where Wilson, Destiny, these guys, would have had no game time, and we may need them.
“So, it wasn’t about just leaving Brennan out because he wasn’t performing, part of the strategy was that we needed to give Wilson some game time. We were able to give Micky and Destiny a rest at the weekend, so most of our guys are in a position where they’re not fatigued, because they haven’t been overplayed, but also they’ve played enough, and that’s really important for us. We’re in a good position from that point of view.”