Ange Postecoglou confirms 'significant' Tottenham injury in latest blow | OneFootball

Spurs hoping to welcome back Cristian Romero for Sunday’s Premier League clash with Ipswich

Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Richarlison will be sidelined for "a significant amount of time" with a hamstring sustained against Aston Villa on Sunday.

The Brazilian pulled up when squaring for Dominic Solanke to score Spurs' fourth goal and is now set for another spell on the sidelines.

Richarlison was out for two months from August with an unspecified injury and was making only his fifth appearance against Villa since returning to fitness.

Postecoglou described the striker as a "long-term" absentee but asked if he could put a timeline on his return, the head coach said: "Not really. I’m reticent to put [a time on] it but he’ll be out for a significant amount of time. It’s a significant hamstring injury.

"He was very disappointed. We tried to take a different approach [to his rehab], he worked awfully hard on his rehab but also his general fitness.

"He’d really trimmed down in terms of his conditioning. He was doing everything right, we eased him back into playing we didn’t want to overload him and unfortunately he broke down again.

"He’s disappointed but ultimately, we’ve just got to keep getting him back in there and work with him to get him back up because he’s an important player. You saw last week the impact he had coming off the bench and setting up the goal for him.

"Disappointing for him, disappointing for us because we haven’t really had him at our disposal this year. But we’ll just keep working with Richy and try to get him back."

Richarlison is facing a spell on the sidelines for Tottenham

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Postecoglou hopes to welcome back vice-captain Cristian Romero against the Tractor Boys after the Argentine sat out Thursday's Europa League defeat at Galatasaray with a foot injury but Timo Werner (groin) and Mikey Moore (virus) are expected to remain out.

"Last night [Thursday], the brief I got after the game was everyone came through unscathed so there’s no issues from last night," Postecoglou said.

"Cristian, we’ll see how he goes the next couple of days, the idea is to try and get him out there and train and he’s pretty keen to so he has a chance for the weekend.

"Mikey [Moore] probably still not right for the weekend, and probably Timo [Werner] as well. Really out of the ones who are out, only Cristian could be back."

Spurs captain Heung-min Son was replaced at half-time in Istanbul, along with fellow winger Brennan Johnson, and Postecoglou revealed he would continue to build up the Korean fitness.

Son was injured in the Europa League win over Qarabag last month and returned to action against West Ham, only to suffer what Postecoglou described as a "relapse" which kept him out for a further three matches.

"He had the injury, we brought him back and the first game back he had a relapse," Postecoglou said. "What we don't want to do is put him back in that cycle.

"It's very easy to fall into that cycle by pushing players particularly when they're coming back from injury. So we're managing his minutes, building him up. He got a good 55 at the weekend, he got 45 last night and hopefully we can continue to build that up.

"But ultimately for us it's about making sure we get him back and keep him back. Because we can't afford any more injuries in that position.

"We've got Wilson [Odobert] with a long-term injury, we've got Richy with a long-term injury, we've got Mikey out now so we can't afford to lose another player in that area of the park."

Micky van de Ven will also miss Sunday's game, with Postecoglou saying the exact date of his return from a hamstring injury was still to be determined.

"It will be after the international break," he said. "When after will just dictate sort of his progress during that time. I think probably the end of the break will be four weeks, so when exactly after that we’ll have to wait and see."

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