Tottenham forward Mohammed Kudus will sit out of Ghana’s fixtures during the international, aiming to return for the clash with Arsenal on November 23.
The 25-year-old picked up a knock in the defeat by Chelsea on November 1 and has since missed a Champions League win over FC Copenhagen and the Premier League draw with Manchester United on Saturday.
Ahead of that meeting with the Red Devils, Spurs boss Thomas Frank told a press conference on Friday: ‘Kudus is touch and go for tomorrow. Yeah, we’ll see.’
The former West Ham man did not make it back in time and now he will rest up and not join his international teammates.
The Black Stars travel to take on Japan on Friday and then to face South Korea on Tuesday November 18.
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Not only would the minor injury Kudus is dealing with be at risk, but that is a huge amount of travel for two friendly fixtures.
With that no longer on his schedule, Frank can be even more optimistic, having said on Saturday: ‘Very confident that he should be available for the next one.’
Frank will be delighted to have the Ghanaian back, with the winger already making 15 appearances for the side he joined in the summer.
Tottenham have a string of injuries at this point in the season, although there could be a number of returns for that meeting with Arsenal at the Emirates.
Dominic Solanke, Ben Davies, Radu Dragusin, Yves Bissouma, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and Randal Kolo Muani are all hoping to be fit again as soon as the international break is over.
Cristian Romero is expected to be fine after being substituted against Manchester United at the weekend.
James Maddison remains out until well into 2026 with a knee injury, while Dejan Kulusevski is closing in on a return but will not be involved against Arsenal.
Frank’s squad has a lot of attacking talent in it, but with struggles for fitness and form, he admits that he is still searching to find his best combination up front.
‘Yeah, I think that’s fair,’ he said on if he is still looking fir the ideal set-up in attack after the 2-2 draw with Manchester United. ‘We are searching to find the right balance up front, and I think when we look at the game back, I think there was positive bits going forward also from the game.
‘I think we created one of the biggest chances – Richarlison from a cross from Brennan [Johnson] after, what, five, 10 minutes. Sometimes it’s the small things – he scores on that instead of Bryan then it changes a little bit and opened up the game a tiny bit more, but we constantly work on the relationships and try to improve it with the players and try to find what is exactly the right blend, but I think there were small steps in the right direction.’
The front line against the Red Devils saw Brennan Johnson, Xavi Simons and Richarlison behind Kolo Muani, before Wilson Odobert replaced Kolo Muani at half-time.
‘We tried to work around what is the best way to attack the opponent in front of us, and at the same time still keep a little bit of flow,’ explained Frank.
Tottenham forwards in the Premier League this season
Richarlison
Apps: 11
Goals: 4
Assists: 2
Dominic Solanke
Apps: 2
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Mathys Tel
Apps: 8
Goals: 2
Assists: 0
Brennan Johnson
Apps: 11
Goals: 2
Assists: 0
Randal Kolo Muani
Apps: 4
Goals: 0
Assists: 0
Wilson Odobert
Apps: 10
Goals: 0
Assists: 1
‘We wanted two strikers, Kolo Muani and Richarlison, for the crosses, which we though was an area where we potentially could hurt United.
‘I think it worked perfectly with the first one, where Richarlison got a big chance, so that could have been an unbelievable, fantastic game plan from us. That was part of it, and we need different personalities and types for different games.
‘Wilson, he’s positive. I think he’s stepping forward, or stepping up, and doing things that look right.’