Thomas Frank has confirmed one Tottenham star will be out for at least three weeks with an injury.
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Thomas Frank has confirmed that Tottenham will be without a key player until after the turn of the year. Spurs enjoyed a solid week last week, turning results around after a disappointing un of form.
Frank’s men scored late to take a point home from Newcastle United and then comfortably beat Brentford to move back within touching distance of the top four.
Attention now turns back to the Champions League, with Tottenham looking to snatch an automatic progression spot, currently just two points off the top eight. Slavia Praha are next up in North London on Tuesday night, but they will not be helped by the absence of one of their key players.
Destiny Udogie, who Frank confirmed had a soft tissue injury over the weekend, has now been ruled out until January. Frank said in his pre-match press conference: “Destiny, as I said after the (Brentford) game unfortunately picked up a hamstring injury at the end of the Newcastle game, so he’s out until January, unfortunately. Brennan is touch and go."
Udogie will now miss games against Slavia Praha, Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Crystal Palace, while he will also likely miss the New Year’s Day game against Brentford.
Elsewhere, Dejan Kulusevski is still not ready to return from his long-term issue, with Frank adding: “Yeah, as I said, I will confirm when he's available for the squad. It's part of the recovery. There’s a plan for everything.”
Last but not least, asked about James Maddison, who was back doing light work outside from his potentially season-ending knee injury, Frank updated: “It's very early stages. It's still a long-term injury, so it's good to see him out there, but very early stages. There's no specific time frame. It'll be a long time, unfortunately, before he's available.”
Frank keen to seize momentum
Spurs seemed to spark some momentum last week with two positive results that saw them pick up four points from a possible six, and Frank wants his men to keep things rolling in the Champions League.
“It's always good to build on and get the momentum and get more consistent, good performances,” Frank said. “That's a big part of getting into that. We really try to build on that tomorrow night and have a good opportunity against a good Slavia Prague team that I’ve studied a lot and they make it difficult. They play a very direct, physical style.
“They have more or less man-to-man over the pitch, so that just makes it different. You can't relax at one stage of the game. When you're a little bit further up the pitch, you also have man-to-man over the pitch, so you're not as used to that bit. That can definitely, potentially, make it difficult for us. It's a game where we respect the opponent a lot, but it's about us. It's about us making sure we perform well and continue with the forwardness and directness we had in the offensive play.”