‘Every time I see the light it’s an oncoming train’

Ange Postecoglou has summed up Tottenham’s injury troubles by saying: “Every time I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s usually been an oncoming train”.

However, the head coach of the Spurs anticipates that their recent injury issues will soon be resolved.

Postecoglou, 59, is under pressure following a seven-match winless streak in the Premier League, which has included six defeats and left Spurs 15th in the table.

Key centre-back Micky van de Ven made a welcome return from a hamstring injury in Thursday’s 3-0 Europa League win over Elfsborg.

However, Spurs were unable to play that game due to injury and ineligibility, and they also lost Radu Dragusin, a substitute defender, on the night due to injury.

We’ve had to deal with a very extreme circumstance, Postecoglou said, “Unfortunately once we get hit with what we get hit with, it is very difficult to rectify on the run.”

“We obviously suffered some significant injuries at the beginning, which hampered our progress,” according to the statement. “We then had to rely on a small group of players to get us through, and that burdened them.”

” It has been this vicious cycle. We’ve been in an extreme situation because of the volume of games that clubs are playing, but many of them are in similar situations in Europe.

Postecoglou hopes to have goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, Brennan Johnson, Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner and James Maddison available again within the next 10 days.

However, it is anticipated that Dominic Solanke and Cristian Romero will need to play more games before being selected for the squad.

On Sunday, Spurs kick off a significant week of their Premier League campaign at Brentford.

Then, three days later, they will face Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round at Villa Park and take a 1-0 first-leg lead over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-finals. This will give them a first trophy since 2008.

As we get them back, Postecoglou said, “We seem to be losing players.”

” We don’t want to lose anyone else, but again, best laid plans. Because Radu had played a lot of football last night, it was obvious that we tried to shield him. He comes on and he gets injured.