Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou is confident that Dominic Solanke will be fit to play in the Europa League this week.
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Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou provided an update on the fitness of striker Dominic Solanke and midfielder James Maddison following his side’s 1-1 draw to West Ham on Sunday afternoon.
Solanke limped off against Bodo/Glimt in the 3-1 win on Thursday night and was absent from the matchday squad to take on the Hammers. Postecoglou had initially played down injury fears but the talisman not even making the bench was cause for concern at the weekend.
When asked for an update after the match, Postecoglou said: “Dom is improving. We obviously left him out today but the medical team are pretty confident he should be around for Thursday.”
Ange Postecoglou provides update on James Maddison scan
Meanwhile, midfielder James Maddison was also not in the squad to take on West Ham as he continues to nurse a knee injury. Postecoglou had confirmed that the player had undergone a scan on the problem.
The former Leicester City playmaker played 65 minutes in the first leg against Bodo/Glimt, scoring the side’s second goal in that outing. Postecoglou said: “It doesn’t look great. We’re waiting for further information. We’ll just wait and see, hopefully we’ll probably get some clarity tomorrow. Fair to say, it’s not looking promising but I’ll wait and see.”
Postecoglou made eight changes to the side that took on Bodo/Glimt on Thursday but was pleased with how his side fared against West Ham. Wilson Odobert opened the scoring for the side, with Mathys Tel pouncing on a Max Kilman error, before Jarrod Bowen pulled one back before half time with a neat finish.
Spurs boss ‘proud’ of West Ham showing
Reacting to the game, Postecoglou said: “I’m proud of the players, it’s not easy making so many changes and that’s going to affect fluency and the rhythm of the team. Even the individual players, some of them haven’t played a lot regularly. It wasn’t just the changes, I only made one sub so a lot of them played more minutes than they have recently. I thought the efforts put in today were outstanding, we were disappointed with the goal but aside from that I thought we nullified their threat as well as we could.”
Tottenham Hotspur will remain without defender Radu Dragusin and midfielder Lucas Bergvall for the second leg against Bodo/Glimt while captain Son Heung-min is a doubt. Spurs make the trip to Norway on Thursday night with either Manchester United or Athletic Bilbao waiting in the final, should they hold on to their lead.
Speaking about the injury to Bergvall, which came just before the first-leg in north London, Postecoglou said: "He's hugely disappointed. There's not much you can say, except that every experience in life and football makes you stronger, makes you appreciate what you have and he's got an unbelievable career ahead of him, for sure.
"I say to the guys all the time, we've got to take what's before us now. We can all assume that it will happen next year or the year after but you just don't know, sometimes life works in mysterious ways and it's denied Lucas the opportunity to play in a massive game last night. He's been a massive contributor for us, but I've no doubt he'll come back stronger. Sometimes, you look at footballers and their careers and we think they've got it all good, but every player has to go through setbacks at different times for different reasons and it's all part of what makes them stronger and allows them to grow, and I'm sure that will be the case with Lucas."
In other news, Tottenham and West Ham must hold David Moyes to £41m Everton ransom - opinion.