As you’ll no doubt be aware, four pre-match press conferences didn’t happen before the Gameweek 14 deadline.
The clubs in question were Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove Albion, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur.
All of those pressers were held on Wednesday instead – and we’ve got the headline team news updates from them below.
Not that we can Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers can do much with the new information, of course…
GAMEWEEK 14 TEAM NEWS: WEDNESDAY’S INJURY UPDATES
- Tottenham Hotspur: Solanke to train but not 100%, Romero set to miss out again
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Mitoma + Pedro fit, Veltman to train, Dunk could start
- Bournemouth: Semenyo returns, Cook to be assessed, rotation on the cards
- Fulham: Andersen + Reed still injured, Cairney + Lukic suspended
GAMEWEEK 14 TEAM NEWS: TUESDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE TIMES
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Dominic Solanke is due to train today but Ange Postecoglou warned that the striker is still not “100%” after his illness.
The forward missed Sunday’s draw with Fulham, a match that substitute Archie Gray (knock) limped out of.
“Everyone from the weekend got through okay, Archie [Gray] got a bit of a knock obviously but he’s recovered well. Dom is due to train today, he’s still not 100% but he’s definitely improved from the weekend, so we’ll just see how he goes through training today.
“That’s it, the other injured guys are inching closer but not available.” – Ange Postecoglou
The last line of that sentence means there’ll again be no Cristian Romero (toe).
“He’s due to have his last session or last couple of sessions with the rehab guys, today and tomorrow. So we’re kind of hoping that back in team training, potentially by Friday. At the very latest early next week, if everything goes well.” – Ange Postecoglou on Cristian Romero
Guglielmo Vicario (ankle), Richarlison (hamstring), Wilson Odobert (hamstring), Micky van de Ven (hamstring) and Mikey Moore (virus) also remain out.
Rodrigo Bentancur serves game three of a seven-match suspension, too.
In the below comments, Postecoglou suggested that only Romero and van de Ven will be back this side of Christmas.
He also discussed rotation, including Sunday’s benching of Dejan Kulusevski and the changes to come in December.
“You’ve always got to make decisions that you think are right. I am never going to make decisions just to kind of alleviate or appease people’s opinions. Deki has been our best player this year and I want to protect him because there is no chance he can play all these games we’ve got. Like I say, even if they can play, performance will invariably drop because it is not sustainable. We have to pick and choose.
“I thought the weekend game, particularly with Pape and Madders and Biss in there, we’re obviously missing Bentancur as well, so whenever I was going to leave him out, it would leave a bit of a gap. And then losing Dom on the day didn’t help us.
“So, it’s something we’re going to have to do, particularly with the small numbers we have, between now and Christmas. Hopefully we’ll get Romero and Micky back in this time but the rest of them probably won’t. Bentancur included in that as he is not going to be available [domestically] for a while. So, middle and front third, we’re going to have to rotate the players a fair bit I think.” – Ange Postecoglou on rotation
Even Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie may not be safe, with versatile full-back Djed Spence – who is ineligible to feature in Europe – threatening game time.
“Fitness wise he is always in good condition. We obviously train pretty hard. Could he start a game? I think he could. Could he start multiple games? Probably not because he hasn’t played for quite a while. He has been in and around the squad. Particularly between now and Christmas, the opportunities may come up for him. He almost got on at the weekend but the red card [for Fulham] changed things a little bit.” – Ange Postecoglou on Djed Spence
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
There was mostly good news in Wednesday’s press conference.
Kaoru Mitoma and Yasin Ayari suffered knocks in Gameweek 14 but Fabian Hurzeler gave the two midfielders a clean bill of health.
“Yeah, they are available.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Kaoru Mitoma and Yasin Ayari
Joao Pedro, not mentioned by Hurzeler in the broadcast section of the presser, is also reportedly fine to feature despite his absence from training ground images this week.
The Brighton boss added that he doesn’t have any new concerns elsewhere.
“At the moment, no. Sometimes I forget but I think at the moment, there are no new injuries.” – Fabian Hurzeler
In a further boost, Joel Veltman – who missed out on last Friday’s draw with Southampton with what was reportedly a minor injury – will train today.
“I think [Joel Veltman] will have a training today and then we will see if he’s available. T [Lamptey] is available for tomorrow.” – Fabian Hurzeler
Carlos Baleba returns from a one-match ban, too.
Ferdi Kadioglu (toe) and Jack Hinshelwood (knee) look set to miss out, however, along with James Milner (hamstring) and Adam Webster (hamstring).
“Jack Hinshelwood and Ferdi Kadioglu they still need a little bit of time.” – Fabian Hurzeler
Solly March (knee/match fitness) is injury free but Hurzeler and Albion are being careful with the winger.
“So he said to me yesterday, ‘Gaffer, I’m ready. I want to play’. But I think it is important that we calm him down, that we give him the time to really be prepared for a Premier League game.
“I think after this long time it is very helpful that we go step by step and that we don’t make two steps at one time. We feel we have to say him that he needs to improve in training, that he needs to improve his condition, that he needs to improve his physical shape to be fully ready for the intensity of the Premier League.
“Let’s see if this will be before Christmas or after Christmas.” – Fabian Hurzeler
Meanwhile, Hurzeler again hinted that Lewis Dunk would return to his starting XI.
“It’s a possibility, yeah.” – Fabian Hurzeler on whether Lewis Dunk will return to the team or not
BOURNEMOUTH
Antoine Semenyo returns from a one-match ban on Thursday.
There are no major fresh concerns, while Lewis Cook will be assessed after missing out on the win over Wolverhampton Wanderers with muscular discomfort.
Andoni Iraola also suggested that rotation could be on the cards in the next two Gameweeks.
“I think it’s going to be very similar to the squad we had. Obviously we will recover Antoine [Semenyo] from the suspension and then we have Lew [Cook], one or two players that played the other day that finished tired. We have to also consider that we play [in] a very short space [of time] an important game on Sunday away at Ipswich. We have two or three situations that we will have to take decisions. I hope that they all can play and we can have more players available than the ones we had the other day.
“I think [Cook] is going to train today and we will see. We don’t want to rush him also because now we have a period where we are playing a lot of games.” – Andoni Iraola
Alex Scott (knee), Julian Araujo (hamstring) and Luis Sinisterra (hamstring) remain out.
FULHAM
Joachim Andersen (calf) and Harrison Reed (knee) remain on the sidelines, as expected.
Tom Cairney and Sasa Lukic are also suspended – the former for a dismissal in Gameweek 13, the latter for yellow card accumulation.
It sounds like Jorge Cuenca has recovered from the knock that led to his no-show on Sunday, however.
“We still have Joachim out, plus Harrison Reed. All the other players are going to be available.”- Marco Silva
3 months, 2 days agoCity surely going to smash it tonight finally. Shame Lewis is benched as I fancy them for a CS. That’s probably because he’s not playing!