Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free
Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter
Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter
Ange Postecoglou is hopeful Cristian Romero will be available for Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League fixture against Ipswich Town on Sunday as he confirmed Micky van de Ven will return after the international break.
Spurs fell to a 3-2 defeat at Galatasaray in the Europa League on Thursday night, with Argentina centre-back Romero unavailable after being replaced with a knock during the 4-1 victory against Aston Villa last weekend.
Van de Ven has been sidelined with a hamstring injury, not thought to be serious, and Spurs are at risk of being without their first-choice centre-back pair for the visit of promoted Ispwich.
Romero will be assessed but Postecoglou confirmed Mikey Moore and Timo Werner are unavailable.
“Last night the brief I got after the game was that everyone came through unscathed,” Postecoglou said.
“Cristian, we’ll see how he goes in the next couple of days. The idea is to try and get him out there and train, he’s pretty keen to. He has a chance for the weekend.
“Mikey (Moore) is probably still not right for the weekend and probably Timo (Werner) as well. It’s only really Cristian who could potentially be back.
“[Micky] will be after the international break. When after it will be dictated by his progress during that time.
“The end of the international break is probably about four weeks. It’ll be some time after that. When exactly we’ll have to see.”
Despite defeat to Galatasaray, Tottenham have responded well to their disappointing performance in the 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace last month with back-to-back home wins over Manchester City and Villa lifting the mood.
Spurs could climb into the top four if they beat Ipswich and other results go their way this weekend, but Postecoglou said he won’t be getting carried away by the upturn in form.
“We still have a hell of a long way to go,” he said.”What’s important for us is to keep progressing in the way we have been. Our football for the large part has been pretty consistent, pretty good.
“We’ve had a couple of stumbles along the way but within that context, I still think we’re making progress.
“There’s no point looking at the table now because ultimately it’s where you are at the end of the season that’s going to count.”
