Tottenham: The curious case of Micky Van de Ven, Cristian Romero and their 'slow-burning' injuries | OneFootball

Van de Ven and Romero have been described as ‘slow-burners’ by Ange Postecoglou - so what is going on?

Ange Postecoglou's side went into the derby on the back of one win in six matches (admittedly a 4-0 thrashing of Manchester City at the Etihad) and with injury concerns at the back and in the front three.

But when the line-ups were announced, most Spurs supporters perked up: key centre-halves Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were back in the side, raising hope that Spurs could revitalise their season with a rare win over their rivals.

Romero took part in light sessions with the squad in the two days before the Chelsea game but earlier that week, Postecoglou had suggested he may not return to full training until the start of the following week, so it was a little surprising to see the Argentine back in the team.

Van de Ven pulled up with another hamstring injury against Chelsea in December

Action Images via Reuters

The last significant update on Van de Ven had come on November 21, when Postecoglou revealed he was training outdoors and would hopefully be available "in a couple of weeks", by mid-December. So he, too, appeared slightly ahead of schedule.

With the pair back in the side, Postecoglou had 10 of his best outfield players on the pitch from the off and Spurs raced into a 2-0 lead inside 12 minutes, Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski scoring after slips from Marc Cucurella.

It did not last. Romero played just 15 minutes before trudging off with a thigh injury and, by the time Van de Ven felt his troublesome hamstring in the 78th minute, Spurs were trailing Enzo Maresca's side.

They would go on to lose 4-3, finishing the game with Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray at centre-half - a pairing which started the next 13 consecutive matches.

The initial prognosis on both defenders was unclear, with Postecoglou denying he had taken a gamble with their fitness by starting them against the Blues and saying Romero had "a totally different injury" and that Van de Ven "didn't feel anything significant... just tightness", albeit in the same hamstring.

Reports soon emerged from Romero's native Argentina that he would be sidelined for six weeks but Postecoglou did not provide a meaningful update on either player until 10 days after the Chelsea game, when he said they were both slated to return "in the new year at some point".

Throughout Tottenham's difficult winter, as Dragusin and Gray racked up the minutes for a sinking side, the fitness of Romero and Van de Ven has hung over the club, their returns intrinsically tied for many supporters to Spurs' hopes of salvaging the season.

Romero has not featured since he was forced off with in the Chelsea defeat in December

Reuters

On January 22, Romero unexpectedly took part in training in front of the cameras ahead of Spurs' Europa League game at Hoffenheim.

Speaking in Germany that evening, Postecoglou said the World Cup winner was still “a week to 10 days” from full fitness, before adding 48 hours later that both centre-halves had “a chance” of being fit to face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final decider and Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth-round - a crunch four-day period which appeared almost make-or-break for the club's campaign.

Then, in an enormous boost, Van de Ven returned to action in the Europa League game against Elfsborg on January 30, paving the way for him, at least, to be available for the crucial double-header in the domestic cups.

He was replaced at half-time in a pre-planned swap with Dragusin (who suffered a torn cruciate ligament in the second half) and afterwards both the Dutchman and Postecoglou insisted he felt "good".

But plans for Van de Ven to continue his comeback against Brentford three days later were shelved, with Postecoglou saying he would be kept "on ice" with a view to being "ready for the end of the week" instead.

The end of last week came and went, however, with Van de Ven and Romero missing the damaging cup defeats to Liverpool and Villa, which have left Tottenham's season entirely dependent on progress in the Europa League.

It is now nearly three weeks since Romero was spotted in training, while Van de Ven has sat out the three games since his latest return to action.

Postecoglou has not used the word “setback” to describe either player's situation and insisted that Van de Ven has not “re-injured the injury”, instead suggesting that neither feels “ready for that step up to the Premier League”.

But the head coach has also described both cases as “slow-burners” - Romero on January 29 and Van de Ven on Friday, ahead of Sunday's defeat to Villa - suggesting more patience may be required in their recoveries.

As Spurs' injury crisis finally begins to ease, with "three or four" players due back in full training this week, Van de Ven and Romero have gone from being “the first cabs off the rank”, in Postecoglou's words, to mystifying cases, the situations of two of Spurs' most important players seemingly as unclear as ever.