Ange Postecoglou insists that Richarlison is mentally and physically ready to step up as Tottenham prepares for the absence of Heung-min Son with the new year’s Asia Cup

Ange Postecoglou says Richarlison is now mentally and physically ready to provide for Tottenham – and he will needed when they potentially lose Heung-min Son for six weeks to the Asian Cup.

Son is expected to join the South Korea camp at the start of January with the tournament in Qatar running until February 10. Richarlison bagged a brace in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Newcastle and, remarkably, they were the first goals he has scored with his feet since joining Spurs.

Richarlison is aiming to add to his tally against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Friday night – a stadium where he went viral last season for doing keepy-uppies while Tottenham led 2-0. His showboating saw him wiped out by Brennan Johnson, his now team-mate.

Postecoglou laughed when reminded of that on Thursday and said: ‘We don’t want to take all the fun out of the game. Every player knows there’s a line and if you cross that line, somebody will bring you back into line pretty quickly and Brennan did that.’

Continuing on Richarlison, who underwent a groin operation last month, Postecoglou said: ‘Everything was a bit of a struggle for him when I first got here. You could tell he wasn’t able to play or move as freely as he wanted to and he was kind of labouring through things.

The Brazilian forward scored a brace for Tottenham in their victorious meeting with Newcastle

‘Whereas since he’s come back, you see him at training and even before the game at the weekend, he feels more like himself in terms of what he can do physically.

‘That’s a big thing for a footballer because for the most part, footballers are always battling with something. There’s always a little niggle. But if it’s something that’s really debilitating that they don’t deal with straight away and have to carry on with, it it has an impact on them physically but also mentally. They know that every game they go into, every training session, is going to be a struggle.’

There is talk of Son departing for the Asian Cup after Tottenham’s game against Bournemouth on December 31. The fixture list shows the 31-year-old club captain would miss the FA Cup third-round visit of Burnley, potentially a fourth-round tie, and several Premier League games including Manchester United at Old Trafford. Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr are also set to compete at the Africa Cup of Nations for Mali and Senegal respectively over this winter period.

‘Those three players will be a big loss to us but that’s kind of been the story of our season,’ Postecoglou said. ‘We’ve had to cope without significant players.’

Heung-min Son will likely be absent for a chunk of January 2024 on duty with South Korea