LONDON (Reuters) – Tottenham Hotspur will seek to maintain their strong start in the Europa League without captain Son Heung-min against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday after manager Ange Postecoglou confirmed the South Korean will not be involved.
“Sonny was a bit sore after the weekend, he was never going to be involved tomorrow,” Postecoglou told reporters.
“We’ll leave him out and we’ll see how he is from there.”
The London club have won their opening two games in the competition and Postecoglou said the visit of Alkmaar could allow one or two fringe players to impress.
Youngsters such as Mikey Moore, Will Lankshear and Lucas Bergvall all started in the 2-1 away win against Hungarian side Ferencvaros earlier this month.
“We’ve started the competition really well. Whenever you play away in Europe, it’s a different challenge. We’ve exposed our younger players to European football which is a positive,” Australian Postecoglou said.
“We weren’t in Europe last year and I thought we missed it. We’ve started the competition well but there’s still a long way to go. One step at a time for us.”
Both Wilson Odobert and Richarlison are in contention for Thursday’s game after returning to training after injuries.
Tottenham sit third in the 36-team group with six points while AZ Alkmaar have three points.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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