Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that Micky van de Ven will not feature for Tottenham in Thursday's Carabao Cup semi-final second leg tie against Liverpool. The Dutchman made his return to the Spurs team one week ago at home to Elfsborg and played the first half of the 3-0 win before making way in a pre-planned half-time change.

Despite his comeback, Van de Ven was not part of the Tottenham squad that won at Brentford last Sunday as Archie Gray and Ben Davies started at centre-back. Speaking ahead of the game in west London, Postecoglou revealed that the youngster was not included against the Bees as the club are trying to manage his minutes at present.

Amid plenty of question marks over Van de Ven's injury status going into such an important cup fixture against Liverpool with a place in the Carabao Cup final up for grabs, Postecoglou has provided the latest on the 23-year-old as well as new additions Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel.

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"For availability from last week, everyone fine," outlined Postecoglou in his pre-match press conference. "Kevin and Mathys are both available and have trained. The rest of them, no one available for tomorrow.

"With Micky and Romero to a certain extent, it's about being conservative with them. Micky got through the 45 minutes but he feels he's not ready yet for the step up to the Premier League yet. Obviously a big shame to lose Radu."

When pressed if Van de Ven has a fitness issue or some discomfort still, Postecoglou said: "It’s a bit of everything. He got through the game no problem but had a look at stats, Premier League is a whole different beast and after losing Radu, I thought what we had ahead of us.

"Don’t get me wrong we have some big games ahead but also afforded ourselves a couple of clear weeks. Hopefully we’re in final of Carabao Cup, hopefully we’re still in FA Cup and I don’t see sense of us risking us. Having Kevin in is a massive bonus and he hasn’t reinjured but he feels he needs to get more into him. Same with Romero."

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