Thomas Frank's Tottenham player at risk of losing undroppable status amid fresh dilemma

Thomas Frank's Tottenham squad could potentially be boosted heading into Saturday's Premier League encounter against Bournemouth. Fresh from winning their first two games of the 2025/26 season, Spurs have the chance to leapfrog Arsenal, who are in action against Liverpool 24 hours later, and move to the summit of the league table.

Things are looking very good for Tottenham right now and there is a possibility Destiny Udogie could be back in the matchday squad for the first time since the team's opening pre-season friendly of the summer against Reading. The Italian has not featured since then due to a knee injury sustained in the warm-up the following week when they played Luton Town at Kenilworth Road.

Udogie subsequently missed the pre-season tour of Asia, the Super Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain and then the team's first two league games of the new term. Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of last weekend's Manchester City match, Frank provided a fresh update on the 22-year-old and stated that the match had just come too soon for the left-back.

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"Destiny is better. He's trained with the team twice, full trainings, and also other trainings. Just too short to be involved for City," revealed the head coach. "We want him to train tomorrow and have another good week next week as well, but he's in a good place. Looks very positive about him."

The hope will be that Udogie is named in the 20-man matchday squad against Bournemouth and then ideally takes to the pitch at some point during the contest. As he only has very few minutes to his name this summer, it is going to be about building up the player's fitness levels to then put him in a position to really kick on after the international break.

Udogie was an undroppable in his first season as a Tottenham player after excelling under Ange Postecoglou having finally returned from his Udinese loan spell. That was very much the case in the first half of last season before a hamstring injury picked up at the turn of the year left him facing a spell on the sidelines and his Premier League minutes after that were managed with the team's full focus on winning the Europa League.

After a rare start against Southampton in December where he showcased that he can be an important player for the club, Djed Spence was a near ever-present after that and played the full 90 minutes in 18 of the team's following 22 league fixtures. Not only did Spence mainly play at left-back and excel in Udogie's absence, he also featured in his natural right-back role on a handful of occasions with Pedro Porro not in the team.

Spence has gone from a Tottenham outcast to a possible contender for the England squad in very little time and it came as no surprise to see him put pen-to-paper on a fresh contract at the club recently. The 25-year-old has impressed in his first couple of outings under Frank and now there is no guarantee that Udogie is assured of a place in the Spurs XI upon his return from injury.

That is only a good thing for Frank and Tottenham, though. Spurs want to be in a position where their undroppables are seriously pushed for a place in the team as that will only strengthen the side in the process. Serious competition is also needed due to the amount of games the team are going to have on the calendar this year as a result of their qualification for the Champions League.

Udogie's upcoming return is only a good thing for Tottenham but he may no longer be an undroppable as was the case in his first two seasons in N17.