The star defender will not take the field for Tottenham vs. Dortmund.
Tottenham have confirmed Micky van de Ven will miss Tuesday night’s Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund, and the timing could hardly be worse for Thomas Frank. The Dutch defender sees himself suspended after collecting three yellow cards in the league phase. That rules him out of what’s now a make-or-break night for Spurs.
Find the official confirmation on the club’s official website. Van de Ven has been a rare pillar of reliability in a season full of chaos. Micky is among our better players in the Champions League, going by WhoScored stats at least.
The jokes on X have been doing the rounds for days, and they are brutal because they are rooted in truth. Spurs have already become the punchline for ending other clubs’ misery, and now the narrative is that even their best defender has booked out of the Frank era before it becomes official.
Tougher task for Tottenham
Spurs are dealing with an extreme availability crisis, with multiple players missing through injury, ineligibility, or international commitments, and Frank’s options are shrinking by the day. The margins for error were already tiny.
This is also the kind of match where the manager’s decisions are going to be judged brutally. Frank has already created controversy by reshuffling his Champions League squad, and any tactical gamble that fails will land harder because the atmosphere is so toxic right now. Dortmund away is difficult even for stable teams. For a Spurs side low on confidence and missing key personnel, it is the sort of fixture that can spiral quickly if the first 10 minutes go wrong.
Tottenham’s hierarchy can only absorb so many setbacks before acting. If Spurs go out with a whimper, it will not just be another loss. It will look like the end of something.
It may be curtains for Frank even before FT if things go south on the field. Only time will tell.
