Tottenham receive huge injury news ahead of Newcastle as Van Hecke hints at massive summer mistake
Tottenham Hotspur have received significant injury news ahead of Saturday evening’s visit of Newcastle United in the Premier League, while summer signing Jan Paul ven Hecke has indicated that the club may have blundered with their pre-season plans.
Spurs began the new campaign with plenty of optimism after the biggest summer spend in the club’s history, as they looked to a change in fortunes after back-to-back 17th-placed finishes.
However, Tottenham were given a stark reminder of the quality in the Premier League as they looked well off the pace during their 3-0 drubbing at the hands of a hugely impressive Brentford side last weekend.
They did bounce back by thrashing a much-changed Charlton side in the Carabao Cup in midweek, with new signing Savio on target after coming off the bench.
And with Omar Marmoush arriving on a season-long loan from Manchester City with an obligation to buy to bolster their frontline, De Zerbi’s attack has been given a clear shot in the arm.
Now add in the news that Mohammed Kudus could return to the bench against Newcastle, and things are looking so much rosier for a Tottenham frontline that struggled for creativity last season after the Ghana international suffered a quadriceps injury in January.
Kudus was the team’s most potent attacking weapon prior to the injury that ended up ruling him out for the remainder of the season, but Roberto De Zerbi has suggested that he could be back on the bench for Saturday’s clash.
There’s also the slim chance that James Maddison may have overcome his shoulder injury to feature, although that is less likely at this stage.
Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert and Xavi Simons all remain on the sidelines, but Micky van de Ven and Kevin Danso are both fine after suffering facial injuries against Charlton.
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Van Hecke admits pre-season tour struggles
Meanwhile, Tottenham centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke has hinted that the club’s trip Down Under in pre-season may well have had an impact on their struggles at Brentford on the opening weekend.
Spurs looked well short of the required fitness levels, struggling to match the Bees’ intensity, with De Zerbi admitting afterwards that he knew his players were not at the required physical condition, given the challenges they faced this summer.
The Italian remarked that Tottenham could not work in the way they wanted during their pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand, and now one of the club’s new signings has now made a big admission about the trip.
The Spurs players had to take a 26-hour flight from London to Auckland and, given the jet lag from the trip, De Zerbi chose not to risk many of his senior players in the friendlies in Australia and New Zealand, preferring to use academy youngsters.
Van Hecke has now admitted that it took him nearly two weeks to fully recover from the impact of the trip to the other side of the globe.
The Tottenham centre-back told The Guardian: “It was a really short break (after the World Cup), but I didn’t want to miss anything in the pre-season. My first days [as a Spurs player] were in New Zealand and Australia.
“Physical-wise, of course, it impacts your body. I struggled for one or two weeks.
“There are two sides. Normally you don’t go there, and now you see that they also love football. That’s something good.”
Meanwhile, two observers claim a ‘moody git’ Tottenham player is now certain to leave as a direct consequence of Marmoush arriving, and TEAMtalk can reveal which club he might join.
