Thomas Frank has reiterated that Micky van de Ven’s injury is ‘minor’ and declared the centre-back ‘touch and go’ to face Manchester City on Sunday (4.30pm UK).
A goalscorer at Burnley last weekend, Micky missed our midweek trip to Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Champions League with the issue, Joao Palhinha stepped into the back three alongside Cuti Romero and Kevin Danso.
Asked for the latest on Micky at his pre-City press conference at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon, Thomas responded: “Micky is a minor one. He will be touch and go for Sunday. We're hoping. He was on the pitch yesterday, on the pitch today. So, hopeful for that, but it's touch and go.”
Speaking later about Dominic Solanke’s fitness – the striker a goalscorer off the bench in Germany as he builds up his match minutes after six months out – Thomas said: “Like always, there's a lot of thought process and analysis behind every decision we try to make in team selection. Of course, it was tough not to bring Dom in again in a very important game, but all signs, all my experience, told me that it's not the right thing to do that. Kolo did very well and then Dom came on and killed the game for us. He's still building, but he's ready to start on Sunday.”
Otherwise, Thomas will have a number of players available again after being ineligible for Eintracht Frankfurt – Yves Bissouma, Radu Dragusin, Conor Gallagher, Mathys Tel and Souza – but we're without the services of a host of longer-term injured players - Pedro Porro, Richarlison, James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall, Mo Kudus, Deki Kulusevski, Rodri Bentancur and Ben Davies are all sidelined.