Things are finally starting to look up for Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham on the injury front. Seeing Guglielmo Vicario and James Maddison return to the starting XI on Sunday against Manchester United and play a key role in the 1-0 victory, the Spurs boss also had Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert to call upon from his bench.

Udogie was to remain an unused substitute for the win over Ruben Amorim's side but Johnson and Odobert entered the fray after the break. The former got 26 minutes in the tank after replacing Maddison just past the hour mark, with the latter coming on in the 87th minute in place of Son Heung-min.

Both played their part in what remained of the game and they give Postecoglou a welcome boost in terms of his squad after operating with a small group of players over the past couple of months. Their game time should increase even further this weekend when Tottenham visit Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon.

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Not only an opportunity for players such as Vicario, Udogie, Maddison, Johnson and Odobert to increase their fitness levels further, Postecoglou will also have the chance to give those who have played regularly in this demanding period a breather.

One of Pedro Porro or Djed Spence could potentially drop out of the team at Portman Road, with Dejan Kulusevski and Son possible candidates to do likewise now that the head coach has sufficient attacking options at his disposal. The likes of Udogie, Johnson and Odobert may be in a position to start in Suffolk on the back of another free midweek without a game.

It will just be the two successive free midweek slots for Tottenham as they face Manchester City in N17 on Wednesday, February 26. Their schedule will only start to ramp up again from there as the Europa League returns at the start of March.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference last Friday, Postecoglou revealed his plan going into the Ipswich and Man City games when it comes to those just returning from injury.

"Madders is a possibility. Destiny, with the guys who have missed a little bit more, Madders has been a shorter term one, we will see," said the Australian when asked if Maddison and Udogie could start against Manchester United.

"They may be on the bench and we look at our schedule when next week we have no game and can train and then the following week we have got a midweeker so what I really want is when we get to that midweeker that Destiny, Brennan, Wilson and Timo, at a stretch, can get some gametime so when we need to rotate from Ipswich into City that these guys have played significant minutes."

The term "significant minutes" does seem to indicate that players such as Udogie, Johnson and Odobert, and possibly even Timo Werner if fit, will be given a decent portion of pitch time at Ipswich this weekend, thus meaning they are at a good level with their fitness by the time the Manchester City match comes around. Tottenham have already claimed three points off Pep Guardiola's side this campaign after an emphatic 4-0 win back in November and the hope will be that they can make it a league double.

Spurs' returning players are only going to help the team in the weeks ahead and they will want to face Manchester City having won three successive league games in the Premier League. Postecoglou finally is in a position where he can rotate his squad and that looks set to be the case at Ipswich on Saturday afternoon.

Victory over Man United, talking about those fan protests & the Vicario and Maddison's triumphant returns. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham!

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