Tottenham rejected again amid Radu Dragusin injury concerns | OneFootball

Fikayo Tomori has rejected the chance to join Tottenham Hotspur from AC Milan, reports claim, as the London club push to sign a new central defender before the January transfer window closes.

Spurs have been beset by injury problems this season, with first-choice centre-back partnership Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven playing a combined 1,752 minutes of Premier League football from a possible 4,320 (which represents just 42%).

Full-back Destiny Udogie has also been sidelined alongside goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who has not been seen since November's 4-0 win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium - an extraordinary high point of a season that has subsequently unravelled.

Spurs are 15th in the Premier League table, with 13 defeats to their name from 24 games played, and to compound their misery, they have now lost Romanian central defender Radu Dragusin to injury with Van de Ven having only just returned and Romero still out.

Sky Sports report that Tottenham were in advanced talks to sign Tomori from Milan, four years after he arrived at San Siro from Chelsea. But the 27-year-old is understood to have turned down the move in favour of staying in Italy, where he plays alongside Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham and Kyle Walker, who recently joined on loan from Manchester City.

Asked about the severity of Dragusin's injury in his latest media conference, Postecoglou admitted he was worried as Spurs wait to learn the full extent of the issue.

Micky van de Ven returned in midweek for Spurs / Catherine Ivill - AMA/GettyImages

"Still not [sure]. We'll let it settle down and obviously get some information over the weekend," he said. "Not available for the weekend at the moment and we just have to see the extent of it. Hard to tell [if it will be long-term]. It's a knee, so we've got to let it settle down. There's always concern when there's a knee injury but we don't know the extent."

With Dragusin sidelined, there's increased pressure on Van de Ven to be fit enough to play the full 90 minutes against Brentford on Sunday - but that's not something Postecoglou was willing to commit to after the Dutchman made his return to action on Thursday in the Europa League win over Elfsborg.

"We'll see. Probably not 90, only because of the short turnaround. He felt really good last night. Great to have him out there," Postecoglou remarked.

"You know he's a good player but you don't realise how much of a good player he is until he...there's a lot of our players who have been missing for quite a while. It's not just the impact they have individually but the impact they have on the group.

"The whole group got a lift from seeing him out there last night. He got through it really well, felt really good afterwards, so the idea is to get him some game-time, build up his minutes over the weekend."