Postecoglou ‘half hopeful’ that Spurs star can return ahead of Europa League final | OneFootball

Ange Postecoglou says there is a chance that Heung-min Son could return from injury against Crystal Palace.

The Spurs skipper has been sidelined with a foot injury which forced him to miss both of the Europa League semi-final legs.

But the Tottenham boss says Son is in line for a return before the final against Manchester United later this month.

“Yeah there’s no [fresh injuries], everyone got through okay the other night,” he said ahead of the game against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

“Half hopeful that we get Sonny some minutes tomorrow so he’ll be the only one that can come back in.”

The Spurs boss did, however, say he could not see midfielder Lucas Bergvall returning from injury in time for the final with the ankle injury he suffered in training.

James Maddison is also set to miss the rest of the season with a knee problem along with Radu Dragusin who continues to recover from his ACL injury.

And given Spurs’ injury problems this season, Postecoglou stressed he will need to be careful with his squad before that crucial final against Man Utd, which will include resting defensive pair Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven this weekend.

“We have tried to navigate that for the last couple of months. particularly with Micky [van de Ven], [Cristian] Romero and Destiny [Udogie] who have missed a huge chunk of the season,” he said.

“When these guys come back you really have to manage them.

“Romero and Micky had a couple of setbacks after coming back so we have to change our path and processes and part of that is just managing their minutes. They need to get some game time before the final, though unlikely to be tomorrow.

“I remember when we played Tamworth, we actually got a couple of injuries in the game straight after that, I think, because of the surface.

“So we’ve got to be really careful about tomorrow’s game, but next Friday it’s a bit different. I think we’ve just got to make decisions we think [are right], ultimately we want to be in a great condition come the final of Europa, so we’ll use that.”