Why Lucas Bergvall is absent from Tottenham squad for Bodo/Glimt Europa League semi-final

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Lucas Bergvall is not part of Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham squad for Thursday evening's Europa League semi-final clash against Bodo/Glimt. A regular in the team during the second half of the season, the Swede misses out at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium due to an ankle injury.

Bergvall was present for training at Hotspur Way on the eve of the Europa League clash, with Son Heung-min and long-term absentee Radu Dragusin the only two players not involved with the rest of the squad. However, the youngster has unfortunately sustained an issue that rules him out of tonight's game.

Speaking to the media ahead of the game, Postecoglou opened up on Bergvall's injury.

"Unfortunately for Lucas, he picked up an injury in training yesterday," he revealed. "He tweaked his ankle unfortunately and misses out tonight. Disappointing for him because he's been outstanding this year and he's hugely disappointed with that and unfortunately he misses out."

The Stockholm-born ace will be a huge miss for Tottenham as he has been a driving force in midfield since becoming an established member of Postecoglou's starting XI. In his absence, the head coach has gone with a midfield comprising of Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur and James Maddison.

On Tuesday evening it was confirmed that Bergvall had put pen-to-paper on a fresh deal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Having officially joined the club on July 1 last year, the player's new deal runs until the summer of 2031.

Postecoglou was asked about the player's contract extension when speaking in his pre-match press conference and he hailed his midfielder for an impressive start to life in N17.

"Yeah hugely so and I'm delighted for Lucas," he told football.london when asked about the importance of the club building around players like Bergvall. "It's reward for his development this year, his performances and how well he has adapted.

"We've got to remember a lot of young guys who come to the Premier League maybe have a step in between whether that is playing in another league, but he has come straight from the Swedish league, a year of senior football and it's a credit to him. He's worked really hard at his game. At the beginning he was struggling to cope with the intensity and tempo, as you'd expect and we expected.

"A lot of our football and life in general is opportunity. He had an opportunity this year because of the situation we were in and he grabbed it with both hands.

"And even now, we've virtually got a full squad to pick from and he's still being selected because he took the opportunity. I think there is a core group of young players here that hopefully we can build something from."

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