Postecoglou hopeful on key duo's return for Europa League

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou hopes to have centre-back pair Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven available when European competition resumes next month.

The key duo last played together on 8 December and Van de Ven featured for only 45 minutes on his injury return against Elfsborg on 30 January.

"They're not training always with the team. They're doing a lot of individual stuff which is more based around them getting back to the levels that they need," Postecoglou said.

"We've hardly trained for two and a half months. We've literally just been walking around going through tactical stuff. For them to join in that serves no purpose because they get nothing out of it physically. Our [fit] guys have just been recovering.

"The hope is we can drop - now we're training properly - Micky and Romero in over the next couple of weeks to be part of our team training totally.

"They're not bed-ridden and they're not in sitting just getting treatment - they're out there running. They're doing significant training but it's just not with the team always."

Asked if they could be fit for the Europa League last-16 first leg on 6 March, Postecoglou said: "I would certainly expect Micky and Cuti to be around the mark of that time."