Ange Postecoglou provides Pape Matar Sarr update amid Tottenham Europa League final injury scare

Ange Postecoglou has provided an update on Pape Matar Sarr after the Tottenham midfielder was taken off early in the second half against Aston Villa on Friday night.

after he was replaced by Yves Bissouma just seven minutes into the second half. Speaking after the match,

There was also some concern for Mikey Moore, who was taken off in the closing stages of the 2-0 loss, but the teenager was simply suffering with fatigue.

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The Australian told reporters: "Pape felt something in his back so we took him off as a bit of a precaution. I don’t think it’s anything too significant speaking to him afterwards but he just felt something in his back and I think Mikey (Moore) was okay. It was fatigue as much as anything else. He hasn’t played that sort of amount of minutes before."

The injury scare will be a huge worry for Tottenham, who play Manchester United in the Europa League final next Wednesday. The likes of James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Bergvall have all picked up injuries in recent weeks and, judging by his team selection against Villa, Postecoglou did not want to take any further risks.

Guglielmo Vicario, Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Brendan Johnson, Richarlison and Dominic Solanke all did not start against Unai Emery's side.

After a resolute first half from Tottenham, the home side took the lead soon after the break as Ezri Konsa smashed the ball in from close range after a Ollie Watkins header from a corner. Boubacar Kamara doubled Villa's lead with 73 minutes played and, in truth, Tottenham never really looked like getting back into the game.

On the game Postecoglou added: "I thought up until they scored the boys had worked hard, they were really disciplined and organised. We didn't really let them create too many clear openings.

"We had our moments as well, going the other way, but once they scored we lost a little bit of belief. We got a little bit fatigued. A lot of those guys haven't played a lot and we looked like we were fatiguing and then the game just got away from us."