According to Alasdair Gold, we should not expect Micky van de Ven to return from his hamstring injury any quicker than first thought, and the fact the player hasn’t had surgery on the injury changes nothing.
Tottenham’s defensive issues appeared to be solved this summer with the signing of Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg. The 22-year-old arrived with great promise, and has adapted to the Premier League instantly.
Van de Ven’s impressive early season form was underpinned by his blossoming relationship alongside Cristian Romero, with the pair offering the kind of composure, awareness, and ball-playing ability needed for Ange Postecoglou‘s system to work.
Sadly, the signing of van de Ven wasn’t enough, and when he pulled up with a hamstring injury in the defeat to Chelsea earlier this month, Tottenham‘s lack of squad depth was exposed.
(Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
Van de Ven unlikely to return ahead of schedule
With the likes of Eric Dier filling in at centre-half, Spurs fans are desperate to see van de Ven back in action soon. However, Alasdair Gold insists we should not expect the Dutchman’s return any sooner than January.
In Gold’s latest YouTube video, he said: “Right now, it still seems to be on the original recovery timeline. The other thing people keep saying is ‘because he hasn’t had surgery, he isn’t going to be out that long.’ That’s just not how it works.
“I have spoken to medical experts on this, not just used my own knowledge by Googling on the NHS site, which I have done as well. Medical experts have told me that even a hamstring injury not requiring surgery could still take 12 weeks to heal. It can still need that amount of time.
“I think you can have a grade 3, which is the worst one, and still not require surgery. Again, it hasn’t been released what kind of grade this injury is yet.”
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I am pretty much expecting the worst-case scenario with this injury (as I do for most things related to Spurs, to be honest) and accepting that we won’t have van de Ven back until January.
The one silver lining of this situation is that it’s made it abundantly clear the club has to sign a new centre-back in the New Year.
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