Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven gave the fans some positive news on Friday night. The Spurs star cheered on Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld at the World Darts Championship, before which he revealed that he would be returning to the pitch sooner than expected.
Van de Ven has been missing heavily from Tottenham since early November when he injured his thigh muscle. The 22-year-old quickly established himself as an important member of Ange Postecoglou’s starting eleven after his summer move from Wolfsburg.
The Spurs boss let fans down earlier this week when he said that Van de Ven and his equally important teammate James Maddison were not yet “close” to returning to first-team training.
But Van de Ven painted a different picture on Friday during an appearance at Alexandra Palace when he said: “Everything is going well – just two weeks [until a return to training].”
The Dutchman was delighted with, among other things, a nine-dot win against iconic referee Russ Bray. Van Barneveld repaid his support with a convincing 3-1 win over Radek Szaganski in the evening.
In the absence of Van de Ven, Postecoglou has benefited from the contribution of Ben Davies at central defender over the last few weeks. The Tottenham boss could have his first-choice back line available when his team travels to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on 14 January.
However, Postecoglou’s recent comments suggest that Van de Ven may have been too ambitious with his announcement of a return. He said: ‘[Maddison and Van de Ven] are in rehabilitation and are not training with the first team at the moment.
“If you look at the timetable, Micky and Madders did it almost on the same match. Micky is maybe just ahead of schedule in terms with Madders. Both kind of in January and [Rodrigo] Bentancur quite similarly.
“It’s not that we try not to give information, these things kind of either speed up or drag on when you get to the final stage. Until I see them with us, it’s hard to say.”
The Spurs went five games without a win immediately after Van de Ven’s injury. But Postecoglou has since steadied the ship and the north Londoners will head into Saturday’s clash with Everton on the back of successive wins over Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest.