Tottenham have been dealt a major injury blow after Ange Postecoglou confirmed Micky van de Ven has been ruled out of their Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Liverpool.

Van de Ven only returned from a long hamstring lay-off in the Europa League last week but Postecoglou says the Spurs centre-back “doesn’t feel ready for the step up to the intensity of the Premier League”.

Being without Van de Ven is huge setback for Spurs, who have just lost Radu Dragusin to a serious knee injury and are still without Cristian Romero.

Van de Ven played 45 minutes against Elfsborg last Thursday on his return after seven weeks out with the hamstring injury he suffered against Chelsea on December 8.

Postecoglou said on Sunday that Van de Ven was not in the Spurs squad for their 2-0 win at Brentford because he wanted to “manage his minutes” and “keep him on ice” for this week.

But, speaking ahead of the trip to Anfield on Thursday, Postecoglou said: "It's a bit of everything.

“He doesn't feel like... he got through the game no problem, but we had a look at the figures towards the physical [side] you know, he does a lot more training and he got through it OK, but the Premier League's a whole different beast.

“And after losing Radu, I kind of sat down and thought about what we've got ahead of us still, look, don't get me wrong, we've got a couple of massive games this week for sure, but we've also afforded ourselves a couple of weeks, hopefully without midweek fixtures, and beyond that, Europe kicks in, which is massive for us.

“Hopefully we're in the final of the Carabao Cup, hopefully we're still in the FA Cup. I just don't see the sense right now in risking that.

“Having [new signing] Kevin [Danso] in is a massive bonus for us, so no he's not, and he hasn't re-injured the injury or anything like that, it's just that I just feel we need to get more into him.

“I think he feels he needs to get more into him, same with Romero, so it'll just be a wait and see approach.”