Ange Postecoglou confirms whether Spurs star has chance for Europa League final
Tottenham have been hit with two huge injury blows ahead of the Europa League final in James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, and fans shouldn't get their hopes up about Lucas Bergvall making a recovery
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that Lucas Bergvall won't recover in time to face Manchester United in the Europa League final. Bergvall, 19, damaged ligaments in his ankle last month and has missed Spurs' last four games.
The Swedish midfielder is the fourth freshly-injured Tottenham player to be ruled out of next Wednesday's final. Bergvall joins Timo Werner, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski as well as long-term absentees Radu Dragusin and Dane Scarlett in missing the match in Bilbao.
Postecoglou was asked ahead of Spurs' trip to Aston Villa on Friday if there was any chance that Bergvall, who's made 45 appearances in his first season with Tottenham, could make a miracle recovery. "No, it is still the same sort of timeframe," he reiterated.
"He was never a long-term one but he has literally just got out of the boot and taken his first tentative steps on the grass but he won't be available."
Bergvall's injury came just days before their semi-final first leg against Bodo/Glimt. "Lucas was devastated. He didn't want to deal with it and we didn't want to make it public, not as much about the opposition but to give him the time to process it," Postecoglou said earlier this month.
"He's a young man. He had such a high in the week, he had signed a new deal, he was playing well, his whole family was out here looking forward to the game."
Tottenham's morale has been tested this season with constant injury setbacks. Nearly every member of their squad has had a spell on the sidelines, with Postecoglou admitting that his players have become hardened to it.
"I guess because it's been a constant with us during the year, we've kind of become almost accustomed to it," he explained. "It would probably be a bigger issue if we had a smooth run all year and got hit with injuries now and deal with missing key players, but we've pretty much been without key players all season.
"There hasn't been a time where we had a three or four week spell with our strongest line-up, so the boys are getting on with it. They're disappointed for the people involved and Deki [Kulusevski] being the latest one because he had a fantastic first part of the year for us and was just working his way back into it.
"At the same time as I keep saying to the group all along, you can't pick and choose when these opportunities come along. There could be other years where we don't have these disruptions and injuries, but we don't get to a final. The reality of it is now the opportunity is there and whatever happens between now and then, we've got to make sure we're ready for it."
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