Tottenham star Micky van de Ven close to tears after worrying injury against Man City | Football | sport

Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven was close to tears after suffering an injury in the Carabao Cup against Manchester City. The 23-year-old was selected as the starting player for the game, but found that his involvement was over in the first 20 minutes.

Van de Ven was clearly in pain after Savinho's challenge and required treatment on the pitch. He eventually managed to get back to his feet, but he moved cautiously, clutching his left thigh muscles.

It quickly became clear he couldn't continue, forcing Tottenham to make an early substitution. Van de Ven looked distraught as he limped straight through the tunnel while the Dutchman almost cried and was comforted by his teammates.

Alan Smith, the former Arsenal striker, was a commentator for Sky Sports and said: “This partnership with [Cristian] Romero is the foundation of the team. If he is not available it would be a huge blow.

Meanwhile, former Everton midfielder Leon Osman covered the game on BBC Radio 5 Live and stressed that Ange Postecoglou made the right decision by replacing Van de Ven as quickly as possible.

“You don’t take risks with hamstrings,” Osman said. “They can’t get better, they can only get worse. If you look at the Spurs team at the moment, Micky van de Ven is probably the only player Ange doesn’t want to lose.”

It remains to be seen whether Van de Ven will be sidelined for a long period of time following his early exit against City. The defender has suffered a series of injuries since joining Tottenham from Wolfsburg at the start of last season.

Postecoglou certainly hopes for Van de Ven's speedy recovery. The Australian hails him as a “special footballer” after his outstanding performance in Tottenham's huge win over Everton earlier this season.

“Excellent, he is a very special footballer,” said Postecoglou. “Last year, when we had the back four going, we were a pretty convincing team, but we also know that we can't just keep using them.

“With Romero, Mickey and Destiny [Udogie]They are not at their best at the moment and have all missed the preparation for the season. So we knew that this was two or three weeks, we saw it last week at the 60 minute mark, they were really starting to tire and we just have to be very careful with them.

“If we get through the international break we can rotate a little bit once the midweek games start and that is because we need them at the peak of their performance because when they are like that they are outstanding footballers.”

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