Tottenham Hotspur and Italy left-back Destiny Udogie is expected to miss the 2024 European Championship through injury.
The 21-year-old was ruled out for the remainder of the season this week after suffering an injury to his left quadriceps, which Ange Postecoglou explained was non-contact and sustained as Udogie took a shot in training.
He has since undergone surgery and was expected to return to the Spurs squad for pre-season, with Postecoglou now confirming this will likely rule him out of Euro 2024.
“A disappointing one for Destiny and for ourselves as well, because he’s been a big part of our year,” the Spurs head coach said “It was just an unfortunate incident in training. He’s had the operation, it’s gone well — so hopefully it gives him time to have pre-season and get back into it. So we’ll miss him.”
Asked if the expectation was Udogie would miss the Euros, Postecoglou replied: “Yeah, yeah.”
Udogie has been a near ever-present for Tottenham this season, missing only two games due to injury and two due to suspension.
He has contributed two goals and three assists in his 28 Premier League appearances and his performances were rewarded with a new contract until 2030 in December.
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Udogie is the latest Spurs player to be sidelined after suffering a non-contact injury in training this season, following Ivan Perisic (anterior cruciate ligament) and Manor Solomon (meniscus).
“I’ve been around long enough to know sometimes these things happen in football,” Postecoglou continued. “For all you try to create the best possible environment for players but even within that there’s a possibility these things will happen.
“Unfortunate for him because he had the Euros as well and he’d had a really promising season for us, he learnt a lot, he was progressing. But this is just part of a footballer’s journey. He’s going to have to deal with this. Every footballer at some point has a setback.
“If there’s one silver lining, it happened just before the off-season where he’s not going to miss a chunk of the season if everything goes well and he’s really close to the start of next season.”
Udogie received his first senior call-up for Italy last October and has played three times for his country.
Italy are the defending European champions after their penalty shootout victory over England in the Euro 2020 final.
Euro 2024 begins on June 14, with Italy opening their group stage campaign against Albania on June 15 in Dortmund. Luciano Spalletti’s side have been drawn alongside Croatia and Spain in Group B.
Inter Milan’s Federico Dimarco was Italy’s first-choice left-back during qualification, starting six of his country’s eight qualifiers.
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Destiny Udogie: ‘Knowing I have Postecoglou’s trust is a big motivation’
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