Team news ahead of Arsenal - Antonio’s latest on Bentancur, Kulusevski and Richarlison
Fri 13 January 2023, 15:45|
Tottenham Hotspur
Antonio Conte has told us that Dejan Kulusevski is ready to face Arsenal on Sunday - and that he will speak to Rodrigo Bentancur and Richarlison about their potential returns after training on Saturday.
Richarlison and Rodrigo have been sidelined since suffering injuries at the World Cup. Rodrigo was forced out of Uruguay’s final group game against Ghana on 2 December with a muscle issue, while Richarlison damaged his hamstring in Brazil’s quarter-final loss to Croatia on 9 December.
Deki was out from the end of September until 6 November with a hamstring injury sustained on international duty for Sweden. He returned for our mid-season matches in December and then started at Brentford on Boxing Day, but was then a late withdrawal from our New Year’s Day clash against Villa after picking up an injury in training.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY after training on Friday, Antonio explained: “It’s good news because, for Deki, he had training sessions with us in the last few days, and I think he’s okay.
“About Rodrigo and Richy, they had a part of the training session with us today, they are recovering well, and they are very close to being ready. We are talking about important players, and the risk is to want the possibility to play (too) quickly.
“Deki is ready. Then, we will see tomorrow during the training session and then after the session, I will speak with Richy, with Rodrigo. We are talking about important players and we have to face many important games, so I don’t want to take a stupid risk and to lose them for a longer period. For this reason, I want to take the best decision for the players.”
Asked if Richy and Rodrigo had a chance of featuring, Antonio added: “I want to see the training session tomorrow and to speak with them. We’ve had a lot of patience to wait for their recovery and, I repeat, it would be stupid to want to accelerate for one game, okay, an important game, but you know very well you have to be 100 per cent for this game if you want to help the team. For this reason, I want to speak to them and to make the best decision.”
