Ange Postecoglou is hoping that Tottenham striker Dominic Solanke will recover quickly from his latest injury suffered against AZ Alkmaar, but insists it is still too early to make a proper assessment.
The England forward made his comeback after seven weeks out with a knee injury as a second-half replacement for captain Heung-min Son with just under 20 minutes to play in Thursday night’s Europa League last-16 first-leg defeat in the Netherlands, but had to be replaced himself in stoppage time by Dane Scarlett.
Solanke landed heavily inside the box after an aerial challenge with AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro and stayed down in pain before clutching his side and being helped from the pitch, with Postecoglou saying after the game at AFAS Stadion that the player was “sore” after what he described as a “knock” that was hopefully not too bad.
The Spurs boss was quickly back in front of the media on Friday morning ahead of Sunday’s visit of Solanke’s former club Bournemouth to north London in the Premier League and was asked for a new update on his status.
“It’s too early to tell,” Postecoglou said. “With Dom, it was [a] big [impact from] the knee into the back-side. He's probably a bit sore, but it’s a knock. So hopefully it settles down quickly."
Solanke joined Tottenham from Bournemouth last summer in a deal worth an initial £55million plus a further £10m in add-ons and he has scored 11 goals in 30 total appearances for the club across all competitions so far.
Spurs also finally had first-choice centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero back in the squad against AZ Alkmaar after lengthy injury layoffs, though neither came off the bench with Postecoglou now admitting that he did not want to take any risks with their fitness due to the state of the pitch.
Fellow defender Ben Davies missed the game but is back in training and has a chance of being involved against Bournemouth, with Richarlison remaining sidelined along with Dejan Kulusevski and long-term absentee Radu Dragusin, who will miss the rest of the season after recently undergoing surgery on an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
