Double injury blow for Tottenham as Van De Ven and Maddison face lengthy spells out

Injuries and suspensions bite for Spurs ahead of trip to Wolves

James Maddison of Tottenham Hotspur goes down with an injury during the match against Chelsea. Getty

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou has revealed they are likely to be without Micky van de Ven and James Maddison until January.

Dutch defender Van de Ven and England star Maddison both suffered injuries in Monday’s 4-1 loss at home to London rivals Chelsea.

Spurs also had Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie sent off in what was their first loss of the season, which means the North London side will be missing some key players for Saturday’s trip to Wolves. That all came after forward Richarlison underwent surgery on an issue with his pelvis.

“Fair to say a fair bit happened after Monday,” Postecoglou said. “Micky [Van de Ven] obviously with that hamstring injury, we knew it was fairly significant, probably a couple of months for him looking into the new year.

“[Maddison] is a lot worse than we thought. He came off with an ankle injury and the next day wasn’t great, so we sent him for a scan. Again probably into the new year for him.

“Richy (Richarlison) should only be a month so not too long after international break, so they are the main ones, but we’ve got a couple of suspensions as well.

“Ben Davies is back and available. (Pedro) Porro is fine, he trained no problem.”

Postecoglou described Monday's setback against Chelsea as an “unusual” game given the red cards, injuries and endless VAR interventions.

He argued the stop-start nature of the game may have been a factor with the injuries.

“I am not going to draw a direct correlation to Micky’s injury but I was half-tempted to throw some balls out there for them to kick around," he said.

“It’s the reason we have warm-ups but if you’re going into a game, the fact there was only 47 minutes of game time the other night in whatever it was, 110, that is not ideal for the type of athletes we have out there.”

Postecoglou has drawn both praise and criticism for his decision to persist with a high defensive line against Chelsea in spite of them being down to 10 and then nine men.

Asked if he had considered a more defensive strategy, the Australian said: “Yeah, there is always the temptation but apart from chocolate I am pretty good at not giving into temptation.

“All the absences have an effect on the team. I guess the unusual one for us, not many times in my career when you have such a disruption for one game.

“We’ve lost four or five starters in one game, three of our back four. That’s where we get affected more than anything else.

“If it was just Micky, you’d miss him because of the qualities he has. It wouldn’t disrupt us as much, but we’ve got to bring in three different players in a back four and that’s the big challenge.”

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