Tottenham have a must-win game against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League this evening and Ange Postecoglou is without arguably his most important player for the clash.
Son Heung-min started last week as Pedro Porro cancelled out Hugo Ekitike’s early strike at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to ensure the quarter-final tie remains finely poised ahead of tonight’s second leg.
But the 32-year-old Spurs captain was replaced by Mathys Tel with ten minutes remaining of the 1-1 draw after having a curling second-half effort saved by an inspired Kaua Santos.
Son subsequently missed Tottenham’s 4-2 loss away to Wolves at the weekend with a minor foot injury, putting his involvement in serious doubt ahead of what is undoubtedly Tottenham’s biggest game of the season.
Speaking after the Molineux defeat, Postecoglou said Son ‘should be available’ again to face Frankfurt – but the South Korea international has not even made the trip to Germany.
Postecoglou has made five changes from the team that lost to Wolves, with Porro, Mikey van de Ven, Destiny Udogie, Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall coming in for Archie Gray, Ben Davies, Djed Spence, Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr respectively.
‘Sonny didn’t travel in the end. He’s the only one who misses out,’ Postecoglou told reporters at his pre-match presser on Wednesday afternoon.
‘He has been battling with this foot problem for a few weeks now and he’s managed through it, but it’s got too painful over the last few days.’
The Tottenham head coach added: ‘He tried to train yesterday and just wasn’t right.
‘So we’ve made the decision to leave him at home to allow him to recuperate to see the best way to recovery for him.’
There had also been uncertainty surrounding the fitness of Kevin Danso and Wilson Odobert, but both players were passed and start on the bench for the visitors.
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Danso has been struggling with a thigh problem, while has Odobert is still being eased back into the fold having undergone hamstring surgery back in November.
‘Everyone else is good. I guess the only notable addition is Kevin, who trained and is available,’ Postecoglou explained.
‘So really it’s only Sonny that misses out.’
The Europa League has been billed by some as Postecoglou’s last remaining opportunity to save Tottenham’s season and, potentially, his job – but the Australian doesn’t see it that way.
‘I don’t see it as salvaging the season. I see it as an opportunity to do something special, so it depends on your outlook on life, mate. I don’t know,’ Postecoglou said.
‘You’re at a point where you have got an opportunity to get to the semi-finals of a major competition.
‘Obviously you know the challenge before you and that’s the bit you’re excited about.
‘I don’t think it is about salvaging anything and you know these opportunities don’t come round very often even if you’re having a good season, so why not take it? That has kind of been the message to the players.
‘Irrespective of everything else that has happened this year, we’re a game away from the final four of a major competition and we shouldn’t take that for granted in terms of something that is a regular occurrence because it certainly hasn’t been for this club, but we’ll try to take advantage of that.’
Postecoglou refused to be drawn on speculation over his future and stressed that he was solely focused on steering the north London outfit into the final four of the competition.
‘Do I know? No, I’ve got no idea. We’ve got a game tomorrow night… but it’s not something I need to think about I don’t think,’ he replied.
‘I’ve never thought about those kind of things in terms of what’s important. What’s important is we have a game tomorrow night that’s a massive opportunity for this group of players, for us as a team, for this football club to get to closer to achieving what everyone wants to achieve.
‘I think anything else other than that, and particularly in terms of me, I don’t have much thought process that thinks about life or my career or what I’m doing in that way.
‘What I do know is we have an opportunity to get to the final four of a major tournament and that’s where my focus is.’
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