Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has calmed fears that Micky van de Ven could be facing another spell on the sidelines with the injury that he picked up against Aston Villa.
The 22-year-old was forced off in the early stages of the second half at Villa Park on Sunday, and he appeared to be holding his hamstring.
Van de Ven has already missed a chunk of action this season due to a hamstring problem, with the Dutchman on the sidelines between the start of November and end of December.
However, Postecoglou does not believe that the centre-back suffered "anything too significant" in the 4-0 victory, suggesting that he will not spend too long out of action.
"I'm not sure, he doesn't think it's anything too significant. So disappointing for him because he was outstanding again up until that point. Great for Radu [Dragusin] to come in, his first significant game-time in a big game and I thought he handled it really well," the London Evening Standard quotes Postecoglou as saying.
James Maddison, Brennan Johnson, Son Heung-min and Timo Werner scored the goals for Tottenham, with the North London club moving to within two points of fourth-placed Villa in the Premier League table, still with a game in hand on Unai Emery's side.
"The whole game, I was really pleased with the way we handled the whole day. Obviously we knew it was a significant game coming here, tough venue, good opponent," added the Tottenham boss.
"I just thought, obviously the atmosphere here, they get behind their team. I thought with all that, the context of all that, first half we did really well, just to make them work hard more than anything else, they had to try to contain us, and the threats they had we snuffed out.
"I had a sense towards the back end of the first half that they were beginning to really tire a little bit. That was the message at half-time, just to persevere, stay calm, play our football, maintain the intensity, which is going to be important. And we did. We got off to a flyer, the quality of our football was excellent, to see out the game.
"At the beginning of the year we played some big games, we handled ourselves well. But considering the context of the game, the venue and the opponent, I thought it was as controlled as we'd been in any game all year, the way we handled everything.
"It's a positive for us, because again, there's a lot of growth in this team, and it's one of the areas, can we control games, even against quality opponents.
"I still think there's a significant part of the season to go, there's still 11 games for us anyway. There's so many challenging games, and every game will have meaning between now and the end, not just for us but for every team, there's a fight up at the top, there's a fight down the bottom, there's a fight in the middle somewhere, so we're all fighting for something.
"If we had lost today I don't think that would have discounted us, whatever other people put on as targets, I've been consistent in saying what's important for me is our growth as a team. And i thought we saw that today, it was another positive step forward for us."
Tottenham will be aiming to make it three Premier League wins in a row when they continue their campaign away to Fulham in Saturday's late start. body check tags ::
