Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou will hand one player a "run of starts" amid the current injury crisis sweeping Spurs.
Van de Ven and Maddison out till New Year
Following their first defeat of the Premier League campaign at home to Chelsea early this week, ending what was an impressive early-season unbeaten run, Postecoglou also has numerous absentees to deal with. The Lilywhites take on Wolves at lunchtime today in what will be an interesting encounter, as they're set to be without numerous key players.
Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero miss out following their red cards against Chelsea, dealing a major blow to Postecoglou, with the Australian also set to be without both Micky van de Ven and James Maddison until the New Year.
The latter's injury is far worse than first feared and may have even suffered ankle ligament damage, according to reports, while van de Ven's hamstring injury will keep him out till around January as well.
"Fair to say there was a fair bit happening after Monday night," said Postecoglou on the latest Spurs team news.
"If I can go through them… Micky Van de Ven with a hamstring injury we knew was fairly significant. Probably a couple of months for him – looking into the new year.
"Madders, a lot worse than we thought. He came off with an ankle injury, but the next day wasn’t great so we sent him off for a scan. So again, not great for him and probably into the new year for him.
"Richy had the operation, which we’d kind of scheduled anyway because Richy has been battling with it from day one and we thought with the international break coming up we thought it would be a good time to get it done. He should only be a month if everything goes well so not too long after the international break.
"They’re the main ones, obviously we have a couple of suspensions as well. Davies is back and available. Porro’s fine, he's trained fine."
The aforementioned Maddison and van de Ven join Manor Solomon, Ivan Perisic and Ryan Sessegnon on the treatment table at Spurs. Indeed, Postecoglou appears to have grown worryingly short of options, leading to some reports that Spurs could target Ben Godfrey in January, as well as Bournemouth defender Lloyd Kelly.
Eric Dier "set for run of starts"
As a result of Postecoglou's lack of defensive depth, the Australian will now have to make do with a player he had previously outcasted.
Spurs defender Eric Dier hadn't played a single minute for Spurs before their clash with Chelsea, but TEAMtalk back that Dier is now "set for a run of starts" in an important role as Postecoglou's only fit natural centre-back option.
The Englishman was out of favour and linked with a move away, as his contract expires in 2024, but Postecoglou now has a "big decision" to make over who will partner him against Wolves this afternoon.
