Tottenham defender Destiny Udogie appears to have allayed injury concerns following Sunday’s Premier League victory against Manchester United.
The Italian left-back started for Spurs at Old Trafford as Ange Postecoglou’s side produced a statement 3-0 win thanks to goals from Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke.
Udogie played his part in an impressive start to the game by Tottenham, producing an excellent run to spark an attack that ended with Johnson - who had opened the scoring after less than three minutes with his fourth goal in as many games - firing against the post.
However, the 21-year-old appeared to hurt himself during that sequence and Spurs originally had Djed Spence ready to come on, only to eventually wait until half-time to make the substitution as Udogie returned to action.
Postecoglou did not seem too concerned by the issue after the game, revealing that Tottenham did not want to take any risks with a key player after he had played longer than anticipated in the Europa League win over Qarabag on Thursday as an early replacement for Lucas Bergvall after Radu Dragusin’s red card.
"Destiny was ok,” Postecoglou said. “I mean he felt something in his quad but he obviously finished the half, but we just thought at half-time no point, we've got to be careful about how much we push our players.
“Obviously, Destiny had to come on pretty early on Thursday night, which wasn't the plan and I would say Micky [Van de Ven] played probably more than we wanted him to."
Udogie also appeared to calm any injury worries after Tottenham’s drubbing of woeful Manchester United that heaped yet more pressure on Erik ten Hag and saw Spurs finally pick up an away win against a ‘big-six’ rival under Postecoglou.
“Coming back to London with three points,” he wrote on Instagram. “Sure I’ll be okay.”
Udogie has been a key player for Spurs since joining on a full-time basis last summer, having initially been signed from Udinese for £15million in 2022 and then loaned back to the Serie A club for the season.
He has played 38 times across all competitions for Tottenham so far, though missed the end of last season after undergoing thigh surgery in April.
However, Udogie recovered to feature for Italy at Euro 2024 and has been ever-present for Spurs so far this season, with Postecoglou’s side due to travel to Hungary for their next Europa League assignment against Ferencvaros on Thursday before heading to Brighton in the Premier League on Sunday in their last fixture before the October international break.
Spurs will be without both Wilson Odobert and Richarlison for those games due to injury, while Postecoglou is unsure if captain Heung-min Son will be fit after missing the win over United with a hamstring issue.
"We'll see," he said of Son on Sunday. “Obviously it was a quick turnaround today, so we'll assess it when we go back and get back down to London. We'll see how he is.”
