Son Heung-min is captain of both Tottenham and South Korea (Photo: Getty)
Tottenham have recalled young forward Dane Scarlett from his loan at Ipswich Town to cover for captain Son Heung-min who could miss up to six games.
Son is set to skipper South Korea at the Asian Cup next month and will have serious ambitions of reaching the final on 10th February.
Should he do that, he’ll miss Spurs’ Premier League clashes against Manchester United, Brentford, Everton and Brighton, as well as the FA Cup third round match with Burnley and a fourth round tie should they beat the Clarets.
With 11 goals and four assists in 19 appearances so far this season, the forward is a huge player for his club and his absence leaves them light on centre-forward options.
Richarlison will likely deputise for the 31-year-old but although the Brazilian is rediscovering his best form, he does having fitness concerns and may not be totally reliable.
Brennan Johnson could also play centrally and Alejo Veliz can also be called upon, though Ange Postecoglou has given the 20-year-old just 14 minutes of action this campaign.
Perhaps for these reasons, Spurs have given themselves another option up front by bringing back Scarlett, with a club statement on Wednesday reading: ‘Dane Scarlett has been recalled from his loan at Ipswich Town.
Dane Scarlett failed to start a single game for Ipswich (Photo: Getty)
‘The striker, aged 19, made 12 substitute appearances in the Championship for a Tractor Boys side who have been in impressive form so far this season and currently occupy second place.
‘Dane, who signed a new contract with the Club during the summer, has made 11 competitive first team appearances for us to date, most recently coming on as a half-time substitute in our Carabao Cup second round tie at Fulham on 29th August before joining Ipswich two days later.’
As alluded to, Ipswich’s fine form has meant that Scarlett has been unable to break into their starting XI and failed to register a goal contribution in 146 minutes of football.
Postecoglou discussed the decision to recall Scarlett in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday: ‘Good to get Dane back and obviously the loan didn’t work out for him at Ipswich, which is disappointing for him and disappointing for us because the reason we sent him out on loan was to get some game-time, rhythm and develop.
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‘It hasn’t worked out that way so made sense to bring him back. He is back training with us and becomes available from January 1st again. Then it is up to him.
‘He will stay with us until the rest of the season and we’ll see how he trains and what opportunities may or may not come along, so we’ll address those situations then.’
As for Son, he still has two more games to play for the Lilywhites – Brighton on Thursday and Bournemouth on New Year’s Eve – before he departs for international duty.
South Korea have not won the Asian Cup since 1960, with Son scoring in the 2015 final defeat to Australia, who were being managed by Postecoglou at the time.
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