Ange Postecoglou confirms key trio return for AZ clash, but Kulusevski is out | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that Dominic Solanke, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven are fit again to be in the Tottenham squad, but Dejan Kulusevski misses out through injury.

Spurs face Dutch side AZ Alkmaar tomorrow evening, and have been buoyed by the return of their first choice defensive pairing and striker, but the loss of player of the season contender Kulusevski to a foot injury will be a massive blow to the north Londoners.

When asked about the severity of the injury, Postecoglou confirmed the Swedish international has not suffered from any break, but he will be absent until after the international break:

“So in terms of who hasn’t travelled… Deki Kulusevski is the only one,” Postecoglou said. “He’s got a knock on the foot, he’s not really sure when to be honest but it’s got a bit sore in the last couple of weeks but he’s been able to train and play and just get through it OK.

“But it wasn’t getting better so we did some further investigations and no real clarity again but we’re waiting on a couple of things to find out the extend of it but unlikely to be back before the international break. Nothing serious, nothing surgical or anything but he didn’t travel.”

The Lilywhites have missed the presence of key trio Solanke, Romero and van de Ven, with the defensive duo both out for a prolonged period of time whilst Solanke returns after seven weeks on the sideline.

Asked whether the trio are ready to return in this type of game, the Australian says the match will be the true indicator of their fitness.

“We’ll see, we’ll train today. Obviously they’ve all out for significant amount of time sop we’ll see when we reintroduce them but they’re all here and training today, so we’ll make decisions after that.

“I never think about it that way. I don’t know what lower tempo game is, every game players know they have to come in and perform. It’s more just making sure they’re ready.

“For us, I’ve always felt our training is a real good preparation for the way we play, the best preparation for the way we play and the fact Romero, Dom and Micky have been able to train with us at the usual intensity we train at rather than what is had been is good indicator for me about whether they’ll be able to cope.”