Tottenham: Ange Postecoglou defends Micky van de Ven approach as new return time frame revealed | OneFootball

Spurs boss insists surgery was never considered for Dutchman or fellow first-choice centre-back Cristian Romero

Ange Postecoglou has defended Tottenham's cautious approach with the fitness of Micky van de Ven, suggesting the club would be risking the Dutchman's long-term future by rushing him back into action.

The centre-back picked up a hamstring strain against Manchester City on October 30 and suffered a recurrence of the problem on returning to the XI against Chelsea on December 8.

Postecoglou insisted that there was "no issue around the injury anymore" and that the delay in Van de Ven's return was merely around the "mechanics" of his body.

"He's still got a 10-year career ahead of him and once he's well into his career and flying, this period will seem insignificant, an extra two or three weeks, for the benefit hopefully of him coming back and playing to the levels [required]," Postecoglou said.

"He's a big part of this football club, not just now but for the future as well. It's in our interests, you've always got to protect your assets and he's a major asset to this football club. His career is much more important than one or two weeks of doing some extra work.

"He is doing some different things and working with some different people. It’s not as much about the injury as about the mechanics of him because we want him back and we want him back in a real good space.

"He is training and feels really good. We are still confident his return is imminent but we want to make sure we get it right.

"It is just him understanding his body. Look, it is not my space but you look to the experts in that space and there are people looking at different ways, because he is an elite athlete but he is also at the extremities of speed and with those athletes you look at how they perform at the optimum level without putting their body at risk.

"He is still a very young man in terms of footballing experience, and his career. What you want is Micky to play 10 years at the best possible level, this gives us the opportunity to address what we can while in the middle of the season to get him to the best possible level he can get to.

"We've had a couple of people externally have a look at him and give him some guidance and information and [speak] to our staff as well about things he can do differently which will help him as much around not the injury but making sure his body is better equipped to handle the kind of the athlete."

Postecoglou's other first-choice centre-back, Cristian Romero, is also currently sidelined, having suffered a quad injury in the same game against Chelsea.

The Argentine will have a fresh scan on the area this week and, if given the all-clear, Postecoglou says his return to action could be "imminent".

Asked if he was worried at any point that either player may need surgery, Postecoglou said: "No, never close. Neither of them have ever been discussed. The injuries were the injuries, Cuti [Romero] had a quad strain, Micky had a hamstring.

"When you re-injure something, there's invariably a more cautious approach. When it's someone like Micky, who's an extreme athlete, I think you need in my experience to take it a little bit further.

"But surgery has never ever entered any discussion with either player. Now, if we pushed them back early and they weren't ready, that becomes a real issue and we tried to avoid that. But it was never surgery. The injury was the injury. With Micky it's a hamstring, Cuti's is a quad.

"With Micky there's no issue around the injury anymore, it's just about mechanics. With Cuti, it's just healing slower than we thought it would."

Postecoglou added: "Whilst it may look with Micky like we had a false start with the Elfsborg thing, I think it gave us an indication of where he is at.

“We could have pushed on absolutely and we could have pushed on with Romero, but my view is let’s get them back and get them back right until the end of the season so we give them a chance as well to make a contribution to hopefully a strong finish for us."

The Spurs head coach is set to welcome back Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison and Destiny Udogie to the squad for Sunday's visit of Manchester United, while wingers Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner and Wilson Odobert have also returned to full training and could be involved.

Dominic Solanke (knee) is still another "two to three weeks" from fitness, while Richarlison (calf) is facing around three weeks out. Radu Dragusin underwent surgery last week on an anterior cruciate ligament injury.