Tottenham’s Destiny Udogie is in a race against time to be fit for the club’s opening Premier League game of the season against Brentford.
Roberto De Zerbi is sweating over the fitness of some key players ahead of his side’s trip to the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
While Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert, Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons are recovering from long-term injuries, there are also concerns over Destiny Udogie and Micky van de Ven.
Neither of them has played a single minute across any of the club’s pre-season friendlies, with their workload being carefully managed.
Destiny Udogie is pushing to be fit for Tottenham’s clash against Brentford
The Standard have now revealed that Destiny Udogie’s series of muscle injuries last season is the reason why Tottenham have not taken any risks with him this summer.
The report says that the Italy international has not yet been ruled out of Saturday’s clash and is ‘pushing to be involved’ for the trip to West London.
However, the outlet has some bad news regarding Van de Ven, revealing that he has not been spotted training at Hotspur Way in the lead-up to the opening game of the season.
The Dutchman, who signed a five-year contract at Spurs recently, is expected to miss out on Saturday.
Dominic Solanke has returned to Spurs training
However, De Zerbi has some good news in the lead-up to the opening clash, with Dominic Solanke back in training with the Tottenham squad.
The striker, who missed almost the entirety of last season with injuries, has not featured in any of the friendlies since the squad returned from their pre-season tour of Australia and New Zealand.
If Solanke is passed fit for the Brentford clash, De Zerbi may have a tough decision to make on who leads the line, with Richarlison having impressed in pre-season.