Tottenham: Ange Postecoglou reveals Spurs sick bug update and explains surprise triple selection decision
Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray both “literally got off sickbeds” to play for depleted Tottenham as he explained why he left all of Heung-min Son, James Maddison and Yves Bissouma on the bench for the 2-1 home defeat by Newcastle.
Struggling Spurs’ ongoing injury crisis was compounded for their first Premier League fixture of 2025 on Saturday by a sickness bug that has affected the squad this week.
With Destiny Udogie joining Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Ben Davies, Mikey Moore, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison out injured, and with Fraser Forster ill and Rodrigo Bentancur suspended again, Tottenham were without 10 senior players for the visit of in-form Newcastle to north London.
The absence of both Vicario and deputy Forster led to third-choice goalkeeper Brandon Austin making his first senior appearance for the club nine years after joining, while Dragusin - Tottenham’s last remaining available senior centre-back - was replaced by forgotten man Sergio Reguilon at half-time to leave returning full-back Djed Spence and midfielder Gray as a makeshift defensive pairing for the second half.
Dragusin and Gray were among the players said to be struggling with illness in the build-up to the game, along with Forster, with Postecoglou revealing the efforts they made to be available.
“Radu and Archie literally got off sickbeds to play today, and Radu was shattered at half-time,” said the under-pressure Spurs boss, who claimed he was the “angriest he had ever been in his career” after a controversial loss to Newcastle that extended Tottenham’s dismal run to just one win from eight league matches.
Asked for more details on the illness that had spread through the Spurs camp this week, Postecoglou added: “Just a bug. Radu and Archie were bed-ridden all week.
“Fraser, obviously he’s still bed-ridden and struggling with it, there’s a couple of others struggling. Like I said, at half-time [Dragusin] didn’t have any more to give. On Thursday, we literally had 11 fit players for training.”
With Tottenham so short on numbers, it was perhaps a surprise to see all of captain Son, Maddison and Bissouma named as substitutes against Newcastle.
All three were eventually introduced at the same time just past the hour mark in a spirited second-half effort, with Son and Bissouma perhaps being rested with Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg tie at home to Liverpool in mind. Maddison, however, is suspended for that fixture.
Quizzed on why that trio had been left on the bench on Saturday, Postecoglou - who before the game said that Tottenham had to look after their senior players who are fit as he hoped Timo Werner’s pace would case Newcastle early problems - explained: “Just a combination of I thought we were going to need some running power and energy early on and as the game went on we would be able to use the experience of the guys who came on and I thought it worked well.
“We finished really strong. We started the game really well and the only thing that stopped us in our tracks was not football. That was the whole idea about it.
“Guys like Sonny, Biss and Maddison to a lesser extent, they have played a lot of football and having them fresh helps them mentally as much as physically and I thought all three when they came on made a real difference for us.”
