Dragusin to make first start for Tottenham at Fulham

LONDON : Romanian defender Radu Dragusin will make his first start for Tottenham Hotspur after injury ruled out Micky van de Ven for the Premier League trip to Fulham on Saturday.

Dragusin joined from Genoa in January but has been limited to a handful of appearances off the bench.

"I'll take the suspense out of it. He'll start tomorrow," manager Ange Postecoglou told reporters on Friday.

"He's had to be patient for his opportunity with Micky and Cristian (Romero) being outstanding and one game a week. I thought he did well with his opportunity. I think he can bring us something different."

The 22-year-old Dragusin, who cost Tottenham 25 million pounds ($31.86 million), replaced Van de Ven early in the second half in the 4-0 win at Aston Villa last week.

There were initial fears that Dutchman Van de Ven had suffered a recurrence of the serious hamstring injury that ruled him out for several weeks earlier in the season.

But Postecoglou said the injury was not serious.

"He'll miss tomorrow but we're quite confident that with the international break he won't miss too much more," the manager said. "He came off at the right time I think."

Tottenham have the opportunity to move into fourth place with a win at Craven Cottage and they could be boosted by the return of Brazilian striker Richarlison from a knee injury.

"Richy has trained, so if he pulls up okay (in training today), he should be available for tomorrow," he said.

($1 = 0.7846 pounds)