Nuno Espirito Santo has confirmed that Tanguy Ndombele’s absence from the Tottenham Hotspur squad for yesterday’s friendly win against Arsenal was not down to injury.
Although Spurs fans caught a glimpse of Ndombele in the open training session at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week, the midfielder did not play a single minute in any of the club’s pre-season fixtures.
Nuno decided to make just two changes from the team that started against Chelsea, with Davinson Sanchez and Hugo Lloris coming in for Matt Doherty and Pierluigi Gollini.
Tottenham ran out 1-0 winners courtesy of a second-half goal from Son Heung-min to end their pre-season unbeaten..
While Nuno admitted his delight at his players’ efforts in his post-match press conference, he refained from going into detail over Ndombele’s absence, simply stating that it is not ‘the right moment’ for the former Lyon man to be involved.
When asked if Ndombele is injured, the Spurs boss told Football.London: “We have all the players, we have to assess all the individual aspects of each and every one of the players.
“Tanguy is not with us today. He is not injured but we consider it is not yet the moment for him to be part of the game.”
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Alasdair Gold revealed last week that the midfielder, who recently became a father, is disappointed at the expected exit of Serge Aurier and Moussa Sissoko (Football.London).
Spurs Web Opinion
It seems evident that Ndombele’s absence is fitness related. Perhaps Nuno and his staff are putting Tanguy through a more demanding individualised fitness regiment and do not want to risk pushing him too hard by playing him in matches. The 24-year-old seems unlikely to be involved in the first few games of the campaign.
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