DOMINIC SOLANKE wants to gatecrash Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad – after returning from a nagging injury that inflicted “one of the hardest moments of my life”.
The Tottenham striker made his first start since the final day of last season against Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, scoring the second
Dominic Solanke has three England caps so far – though none under Thomas TuchelCredit: Getty Images
It followed five months out with a “complicated” ankle problem which first flared up in pre-season and ended up being far, far worse than first feared.
Yet now the fully-fit forward is keen to make up for lost time – and is eyeing a spot on the plane to the States in the summer.
, 28, said: “The World Cup is what everyone wants to be involved in.
“It’s unfortunate that I missed the first half of the season. But I just want to get back firing for Tottenham now.
“Obviously, the World Cup is on my mind as well so I’ll be pushing for that too.”
Solanke has three caps for England but has not made an appearance since Tuchel took over last year.
He was included in Tuchel’s first squad to face Albania and Latvia but did not get off the bench.
But Solanke knows there remains an opportunity there to make the World Cup as Harry Kane’s back-up with a strong second half to the campaign.
Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins is in the boxseat but has had a middling season by his standards.
While the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Danny Welbeck, Ivan Toney and even Mason Greenwood are in the mix.
The main thing for Solanke is to stay fit and fire for after his injury hell.
He first damaged his ankle in July but still managed to make three sub appearances in August, before undergoing what was deemed minor surgery in September.
The initial hope was he would be back the following month – and yet his comeback did not actually arrive until January 10 in the 2-1 home defeat to Aston Villa in the FA Cup.
Danso: We're fighting for Frank
KEVIN DANSO believes Tottenham’s battling win over Borussia Dortmund shows the squad are behind beleaguered boss Thomas Frank.
Spurs chief Frank was in danger of the sack had things gone south against the Germans and the fans voiced their fury once again.
But his side pulled off one of their best performances of the season, winning 2-0 thanks to first-half goals from Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke.
The pressure has been immense on Frank, but when asked if the game was evidence the players are fighting for the Dane, centre-back Danso replied: “Definitely.
“We are all together.
“It’s down to us at the end of the day, we go on the pitch and every game we try to give our best.
“It’s also about when we’re not playing well we need to try and stay in the game and get the results that we need.
“That’s the next step for us, even when it’s not going well, we need to try and win games and get results.
“(The manager) said well done, we go again on the weekend and want to win, that’s the message.”
Spurs were cheered off on Tuesday night in the Champions League which made for a welcome change from the boos at full-time which have become so commonplace of late.
Now the team need to follow it up at Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday, as defeat to the relegation-threatened Clarets will only crank the heat back up again.
The board badly want it to work with Frank, refusing to relent to pressure to sack the ex-Brentford boss this week following the horrendous loss at home to West Ham on Saturday.
Now the 52-year-old looks in a far less precarious position after putting Spurs on the brink of qualifying for the Champions League knockouts.
A win at crisis club Eintracht Frankfurt next week would guarantee a place in the top eight.
The parallels to last season, where a European run prevented Ange Postecoglou from being sacked during the campaign, even if he was dismissed at the end of it, are uncanny.
Danso continued: “We want to be good in both competitions and Europe is an opportunity to do that.
“I just feel like it’s a different competition, different type of game and we just know it’s a difficult phase right now.
“We’re together, unity, we spoke during the week after the weekend and said we need to get our heads down and do a bit more to try and grind out the results.
“The frustration is there from the fans, we know and understand.
“We want to win games and that’s what we’re trying to do.
“We take it onboard but it’s down to us players on the pitch to do the best as possible and get the results we deserved.”
The Austrian praised captain Romero for leading the way “on and off the pitch”, and branded the recent hiring of former defender John Heitinga as assistant coach as “a great addition”.
But Danso’s biggest endorsement of the night came for 17-year-old Jun’Ai Byfield, who made his Spurs debut as a substitute, coming on for the injured Lucas Bergvall.
Tottenham were without a mixture of THIRTEEN players due to a mixture of injury, illness, suspension and ineligibility and had six teenagers on the bench.
Bergvall, a teenager himself at 19, looked to be hobbling after the game with a suspected ankle problem.
While Xavi Simons showed the world how he had played through the pain barrier by revealing the scale of his swollen ankle – sustained against West Ham – via an Instagram post after the match.
On Byfield, Danso added: “He’s been amazing. He trains with us a lot and he’s very, very, very, very good player.
“Everybody was happy for him to make his debut and he did an amazing job.”
No wonder he looked so happy after scoring against Dortmund, even if his finish came via a mishit, bouncing off his trailing leg and bobbling over the line.
He then did one of his trademark anime celebrations – imitating character Monkey D. Luffy by putting his right hand over his eyes, smiling and his left hand on his stomach.
Solanke, who is an enormous fan of the Japanese cartoon-style art form, said: “It wasn’t the cleanest of goals, but I got to see it go in in slow motion which was nice.
“I’m just excited to be back playing. It was my first start since last season which was a great feeling.
“It’s been one of the hardest moments of my life. (The injury) has been quite complicated. It has been really tough.
“I wouldn’t say it went as far as (fearing I wouldn’t play again this season). But it got to a point where I just didn’t quite know when I was going to be back.
“It’s obviously nice to have that clarity when you’re going to be back and I didn’t have that, so that was probably the hardest part.
“But I’m happy to be back now.”
Spurs have badly missed Solanke in his absence, slumping to 14th in the Premier League and out of both cups.
, although the Dane has bought himself some time with his excellent Champions League performances.
The win over Dortmund means victory next week at Eintracht Frankfurt will guarantee a place in the last 16.
Solanke added: “It’s been on my mind (wanting to help the team) the whole time I’ve been injured.
“Obviously we’re in together every day and I come to watch the games. It’s difficult when you don’t have the chance to help and make an impact.
“That’s one of the hardest parts of being injured. But it’s part of football at the end of the day and I hope to stay fit for the rest of the season.”
but both will be available for Saturday’s visit to Burnley.
It is a huge opportunity for Frank to ease more pressure on himself if the team can get three points from Turf Moor.
Solanke has been left baffled how Spurs can be so good in Europe and so bad in the Premier League – in a carbon copy of last season where they finished 17th but won the Europa League.
The £65million striker said: “I’m not sure to be honest. It’s not right.
“We need to be better in the league. But I think these things are important, when we got on these cup runs, it gives us extra belief.
“You saw the performance we put in against Dortmund. It was great to have the crowd there supporting us as well. I think we can use this as a catalyst to kick on and improve in the league as well.
“It’s key (having Europe still to fight for). The Champions League is obviously going to be very difficult to win. But last season was difficult to win as well.
“It’s obviously something that we have in mind and try to do our best in.
“But no one is denying that we need to do better in the league as well so we need to try to put that right too.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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