Micky van de Ven has not been included in Tottenham's matchday squad for Sunday's Premier League encounter against Brentford. Sustaining a hamstring injury against Manchester City in October and then suffering another problem on his comeback in December at home to Chelsea, the Dutchman finally made his return for Spurs on Thursday night against Elfsborg in the Europa League.

Van de Ven played 45 minutes of the game against the Swedish side and then made way as part of a pre-planned half-time change. Ange Postecoglou clearly didn't want to push him too much on his return and that resulted in the introduction of Radu Dragusin, who unfortunately went on to pick up an injury midway through the second half.

Despite making his comeback against Elfsborg, Van de Ven will play no part for Tottenham against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the game, Postecoglou revealed that the defender's absence is because they are trying to manage his minutes.

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"Just trying to manage his minutes and we looked at it and it's a quick turnaround," he said. "Speaking with the medical team and Micky himself, we think we'll just keep him on ice this weekend, give him another week of training and then hopefully he'll be ready for the end of the week."

Postecoglou and Spurs will be hoping that the highly-rated centre-back makes a swift recovery with two huge games on the calendar next week. Firstly taking on Liverpool in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final showdown on Thursday evening, the Lilywhites then travel to Aston Villa three days later in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Spurs have boosted their squad going into those two games after clinching the loan signing of Kevin Danso from Lens. The centre-back joins on loan for the remainder of the season, with an obligation to make the move permanent in the summer.

Danso could potentially make his Tottenham debut against Liverpool providing that his work permit comes through by then. The Austria international will wear the No.4 shirt at Tottenham.

On the signing of Danso, Postecoglou said: “Brilliant (to get him). I think Kevin will be a great fit for us.

“We’re a little bit short at the back, have been for a while and he’s just really experienced, a good one-on-one defender. I’ve said before that getting new players in gives us energy and will give the group energy. I’m looking forward to him being part of the group.”

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