At some point a couple of months ago, the Thomas Frank updates on Tottenham Hotspur striker Dominic Solanke devolved into pure comedy. Instead of giving concrete timelines or even saying, "I don't know because of x, y, and z", Frank began coyly making vague statements and nothingisms on the frequently injured 65 million pound record signing.
Solanke played a useful role in Tottenham winning the 2024/25 Europa League tournament with clutch goals and solid all around performances, even if his overall scoring record and lack of real star power at the striker position were significantly disappointing for a player with his massive price tag.
This season, though, Solanke has only featured in a couple of games for a handful of minutes as a substitute due to injury, and even a procedure on his foot a few months ago has not provided any better clarity on his return date for Spurs.
Thomas Frank does it again
Now, Thomas Frank continues to double down on his non updates for the veteran Tottenham Hotspur striker. Ahead of Sunday's Premier League battle against an elite defensive team in surprise side Sunderland, Frank said, via The Spurs Web, "To say mid-Jan, end of Jan or 255 Jan, I won't do that."
Basically, Frank has a vague idea of when Solanke may come back, it is probably relatively soon, but it is impossible for him to commit to an exact date, probably because he is afraid of being wrong in light of how stubbornly slow his striker has been to recover.
At this point, Solanke is an aggravation risk with this injury, just by virtue of how slow it has been to heal. And for that reason, literally any minute Solanke plays for Tottenham from this day forward until the end of the season is a mere bonus for Tottenham, because they simply can not count on anything else - or anything at all.
Tottenham have three other striker options on the table without Solanke. Mathys Tel never plays so we can exclude him, though he has scored on the rare occasion Frank lets him be a 9. Randal Kolo Muani is thus the only legitiamte striker option, because, as Brentford exposed yet again, Richarlison is not someone Spurs can rely on.
Solanke has the size and all around ability to be a quality piece of the puzzle for Tottenham, and a striker partnership with Kolo Muani would actually be quite good. But with the non updates continuing, Spurs can not hold their breath.