Tottenham's Micky van de Ven gives injury update after emotional exit against Manchester City

Micky van de Ven seems to be minimizing the impact of the injury he sustained during Tottenham's Carabao Cup match against Manchester City, providing reassurance to fans that he will return to action shortly.

The 23-year-old pulled up with a suspected hamstring problem while sprinting back to tackle City winger Savinho at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, shortly after Timo Werner had opened the scoring.

Destiny Udogie came on to replace Van de Ven – which saw Radu Dragusin switch to centre-half – and the Netherlands defender was clearly in some discomfort as he made his way off the pitch in tears in north London.

‘He felt something in his hamstring,’ Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou said of Van de Ven’s injury following the victory.

‘It’s still early to predict how long he will be out but he definitely felt something and we’ll see how he is.’

A long-range Pape Sarr strike doubled Tottenham’s advantage ten minutes on from Van de Ven’s substitution and the hosts held firm to secure their place in the quarter-finals after Matheus Nunes had reduced deficit on the stroke of half-time.

The sight of Van de Ven hobbling his way off the field in the early stages took some of the shine off the victory from Spurs’ perspective, though, with games coming thick and fast for Postecoglou’s men.

However, the in-form centre-back – arguably Tottenham’s best player this season – has given supporters hope that his injury may not be as bad as first feared.

‘Back soon,’ Van de Ven told his 500,000 followers on Instagram this evening.

There is no let-up for Spurs, with a tricky contest at home to fourth-placed Aston Villa awaiting them in the Premier League this weekend.

Postecoglou’s side have lost two of their last three matches in the English top flight, suffering defeat at both Crystal Palace and Brighton, and will be desperate to bounce back on Sunday afternoon.

Should Van de Ven be ruled out of the clash, Dragusin will likely to come in and deputise for the Dutchman at the heart of Tottenham’s defence alongside Cristian Romero.

Club captain Son Heung-min has not featured in Spurs’ last three matches but Postecoglou is hopeful the South Korean could be involved versus Villa.

‘Sonny is almost fit but probably from our perspective we’ll aim for the weekend and we’re quite confident he’ll be right,’ he told reporters before Tottenham knocked City out of the League Cup.

The Tottenham boss is also confident both Werner and Romero will be fit and available to face Villa despite the pair failing to see out the full 90 minutes against City.

‘Timo hasn’t played a lot, so I felt it was more fatigue, hopefully, than anything else,’ he said.

‘Cristian said he felt okay, but my gut was telling me there’s no point taking a risk as we had Ben [Davies] who could come on.’

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