Tottenham have been dealt a major injury blow after Ange Postecoglou confirmed Micky van de Ven has been ruled out of their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Liverpool.
Van de Ven only returned from a long hamstring lay-off in the Europa League last week but Postecoglou says the Spurs centre-back “doesn’t feel ready for the step up to the intensity of the Premier League”.
Being without Van de Ven is huge setback for Spurs, who have just lost Radu Dragusin to a serious knee injury and are still without Cristian Romero.
Van de Ven played 45 minutes against Elfsborg last Thursday on his return after seven weeks out with the hamstring injury he suffered against Chelsea on December 8.
Postecoglou said on Sunday that Van de Ven was not in the Spurs squad for their 2-0 win at Brentford because he wanted to “manage his minutes” and “keep him on ice” for this week.
But, speaking ahead of the trip to Anfield on Thursday, Postecoglou said: “Micky got through the [Elfsborg] game OK but I don't think he feels ready for the step up to the Premier League, the intensity of it...
“With Micky and Romero to a certain extent, I feel we need to be a bit more conservative with them.
“My view is we're not going to risk those guys, so we're going to keep them ticking over and make sure they're absolutely ready with no setbacks."
Asked whether Van de Ven is injured, unfit or just sore, Postecoglou said: "It's a bit of everything.
“He got through the [Elfsborg] game no problem but we had a look at the figures, in terms of the physical... the Premier League is a whole different beast and after losing Radu I kind of sat down and thought about what's ahead of us.
“Don't get me wrong we've got a couple of massive games [this week] but we've also afforded ourselves a couple of midweeks without fixtures. Then Europe kicks in again and hopefully we're in a final.
“He hasn't re-injured the injury, I just feel he needs to get more into him. Same with Romero."
Postecoglou added: "In terms of availability from last week, everyone's fine and got through OK, so no issues there.
“Obviously Kevin [Danso] and Mathys [Tel] are both available, have trained and cleared to play, so they're all good.
"No-one [new is] available for tomorrow.”
