LONDON: Ange Postecoglou says he is “half hopeful” that captain Son Heung-min will return on Sunday as he makes plans for Tottenham’s showdown with Manchester United in the Europa League final.
South Korea international Son, 32, has missed the club’s past seven fixtures with a foot injury, including both legs of Tottenham’s 5-1 aggregate win against Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League semifinals.
“Everyone got through OK the other night. Half hopeful that we get Sonny some minutes tomorrow so he’ll be the only one that sort of can come back in,” Spurs boss Postecoglou said on Saturday.
“I think what we do know about Thursday night, playing on an artificial pitch (in Norway) takes a lot out of the players, it’s fair to say they were sore.”
Defenders Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie are expected to be rested against Palace.
Tottenham are a lowly 16th in the Premier League ahead of their match against Palace — a point and a place below United.
But they reached the semifinals of the League Cup and have a chance to win their first silverware for 17 years in the Europa League.
The Australian will bring up a century of fixtures as Tottenham boss in the Europa League final against United in Bilbao on May 21.
“It’d be a nice little bow there for that 100 and it’s been a really full 100,” he said. “It’s fair to say I’ve experienced just about every emotion in it and hopefully the one main emotion we’re all after will be the joy at the end of it.
“We have had a ridiculous injury-riddled season coupled by the fact we’ve done really well in two competitions and that is 60 games.
“So, it has felt — and certainly for me personally it has felt — like a really, really long season.
“But you just get energy and realize what happened the other night and you’re so close to achieving something special that it all dissipates into the background, so you get the energy you need.”
