Tottenham's Injury Update Ahead of Premier League Opener

Tottenham have been handed a timely boost ahead of their Premier League opener at Brentford, with Mateus Fernandes, James Maddison and Destiny Udogie all back in training. The concern hasn’t gone away, though. Micky van de Ven is still a major doubt for the short trip across London.

Roberto De Zerbi has spent much of pre-season juggling fitness issues across his first-team squad. Maddison and Fernandes have had their minutes carefully rationed, while Van de Ven and Udogie did not feature at all in the warm-up games.

Udogie’s case is straightforward but delicate. A run of muscular problems last season has forced Spurs to handle the full-back with care, easing him through the summer rather than throwing him straight back into heavy workloads. Maddison is on a similar path, still building up from the anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered last summer.

Both are now pushing hard to be involved at the Gtech Community Stadium. So is Fernandes, the summer signing whose own preparations have been disrupted by a calf issue in recent weeks. Their presence in training offers De Zerbi options he didn’t have a month ago.

The situation around Van de Ven is far less encouraging. The Netherlands defender, fresh from signing a lucrative new contract, was not seen in the latest session at Hotspur Way. He has not appeared in any of De Zerbi’s pre-season squads since returning from the World Cup and, as things stand, looks unlikely to feature against Brentford.

Injury Concerns

Up front, there is another question mark. Dominic Solanke is also a doubt after a stop-start pre-season, his workload limited as he continues to manage the ankle and hamstring problems that wiped out most of his last campaign.

Spurs head to Brentford on Saturday evening with ambition and expectation swirling around them. An aggressive summer in the market has seen the north London club spend £237million on six new signings, a clear statement that last season’s 17th-place finish will not be tolerated again.

Now they need a performance to match the investment.