The injury bug that has plagued Tottenham Hotspur the past two seasons seems to be leaking out into the summer, with new signing Mateus Fernandes dealing with a calf injury in preseason that has resulted in him barely playing in Spurs’ five preseason friendlies. In addition, James Maddison has been handled with kid gloves while he works his way back from the ACL injury that caused him to miss nearly all of last season, while Destiny Udogie did not play a single minute of preseason while he comes
back from some muscular injuries
But there’s good news — according to Sam Tabateu in The Standard, all three are back in training and are available for selection by Roberto De Zerbi for this Saturday’s season opener at Brentford.
Now, there are some qualifications here. Both Fernandes and Maddison started in the second Hoffenheim friendly at Hotspur Way but only played 45 minutes. They’ve both been back in full training for a couple of weeks now. Udogie hasn’t played at all. As good as the news is that they’re available for selection, it would be mildly surprising if either Fernandes or Maddison started on Saturday, and astonishing if we see Udogie in anything but as a late cameo. That said, it gives De Zerbi more options, and as the club’s transfer plans have seemingly stalled the past few weeks we’ll take all the good news we can get.
There isn’t, however, any word on Micky van de Ven, who himself hasn’t played in preseason. Nobody has made any public statement on what’s going on with Micky, nor on Domonic Solanke, whom we at Carty Free Towers assume died and/or returned to his home planet.
Spurs are reportedly still working on offensive transfers including Savinho and Cody Gakpo. Registration for participation in this weekend’s matches are due this Friday at noon, but even if Spurs were to make a signing today it’s unlikely either would play vs. Brentford.
Player options are good, and hopefully we see one or more of Fernandes, Maddison, and Udogie get some minutes under their belt this weekend.
