Tottenham Hotspur will look to make it three wins in a row in the Europa League when they take on AZ on Thursday night.
Although Spurs have had an up-and-down campaign in the Premier League so far, they’ve been flying in European competition.
Tottenham have three wins in a row, beginning their campaign with a 3-0 win over Qarabag before they won 2-1 at Ferencvaros.
Spurs will also be especially confident ahead of the AZ game following their 4-1 rout of West Ham at the weekend.
On Wednesday, Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou spoke at his pre-match press conference, and he had some good news on the injury front.
And according to GiveMeSport, the Spurs manager is now set to hand a start to a player who has just 34 minutes under his belt this season.
Richarlison of Tottenham Hotspur during the UEFA Europa League 2024/25 League Phase MD3 training and press conference at Tottenham Hotspur Training…
Richarlison set to start for Tottenham against AZ
The Spurs manager, speaking to football.london, confirmed that Richarlison is available and “ready to go” if called upon against AZ.
When asked whether the £60million man is in a position to start, Postecoglou said: “Yeah, yeah.
“Richy got through the weekend really well, he’s trained, this is almost the second week of training now, so he’s ready to go in terms of being available, for sure.”
Meanwhile, GiveMeSport have reported that Richarlison – who made his return off the bench against West Ham – is indeed set to be given a start against AZ.
Tottenham are keen for Richarlison to maintain his fitness and improve his form to bolster Postecoglou’s firepower and put Dominic Solanke under additional pressure, claims the report.
And further down the line, Spurs are reportedly keen for Richarlison to restore his market value ahead of a potential future sale.
He has apparently been pinpointed as an asset who could be offloaded for a considerable fee if it is decided that it is the right time to cash in at the end of the season.
Why Tottenham think Richarlison could now turn a corner
This season, Richarlison has only registered 34 minutes of football under his belt, against Everton, Leicester and West Ham.
The 27-year-old also suffered from injuries last season, resulting in him struggling to nail down a starting place in the latter stages of the season.
Richarlison underwent groin surgery earlier in the 2023/24 campaign, which saw him hit a rich vein of form shortly after his return.
The Tottenham boss recently revealed that not only has Richarlison recovered from his injury, but he’s trimmed down and is now in amazing shape.
“We’ve taken our time with him but it hasn’t been just about him recuperating and recovering from the injury,” Postecoglou told football.london.
“We’ve tried to use it to build his fitness base up so when he comes back and to be fair to him, he’s worked awfully hard. He has trimmed down, he looks really lean now and has worked really hard.
“We’ve tried to use it almost as a pre-season for him on an individual basis to not just get him to recover from his injury because he probably recovered from his injury a couple of weeks ago, but we’ve used the last couple of weeks to get his fitness base up and him into good physical condition so we don’t have to keep going through this cycle of him coming back and breaking down.
“Like I said, to be fair to him he’s worked really hard and he’s looked really good. He’s had a good week of training and he has missed playing.”
