Tottenham Hotspur sweat over Rafael van der Vaart’s availability, as the Europa League play-off against Hearts approach
Tottenham Hotspur assistant manager Kevin Bond revealed there was a possibility that Dutch forward Rafael van der Vaart could be unavailable for the English Premier League opening clash against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Everton-c13019 next weekend.
The 28-year-old playmaker is definitely sidelined for the upcoming friendly match against Athletic Bilbao this Saturday, having sustained an ankle injury in the win over http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Brighton-c38685. While the Spurs secured a 3-2 win, the former Madrid man picked up an injury
which has ruled him out for a couple of days.
Bond said he hoped Van der Vaart could return for the Premier League clash against the Toffees, but admitted it was too much to ask. He was however confident the Dutch international would be back in the squad for the Europa League play-off against Hearts,
just five days later.
Bond said while speaking to reporters:
“We'll keep our fingers crossed for next week.”
Joe http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jordan-c2929, the current Tottenham Hotspur first-team coach and former Hearts manager, admitted he felt both sides had an equal chance of making it through to the second tier European competition. Along with that, he revealed both the sides had quite a few
foreign players.
He felt the foreign influence in both teams provided an added excitement for the supporters, which made the game all that more interesting. However, Jordan stressed the main focus was on trying to make it past to the next round.
Jordan said:
“Hearts have a good contingent of foreign players and so do we.
So that aspect will be with the supporters, that's how they will look at it, they will enjoy that and it will give the tie some added spice.
But the players have played all over the world and it will be all about winning the tie and going through to the next round.”
Despite Spurs manager Harry Redknapp claiming his side would be more focused on the Premier League this season, Jordan insisted Tottenham would be equally focused on the Europa League and would do their best to make it past the play-offs against Hearts.
He continued:
“You can't predict what is going to happen but certainly we will play the strongest team that we can.
We played over 10 months to get into the competition.”
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