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The Tottenham Hotspur striker scored in the Champions League on his first start in eight months and is now looking forward to the future
Dominic Solanke has got his sights set on the World Cup and Champions League success with Tottenham after returning with a goal on his first start in eight months.
The 28-year-old striker had not started since Spurs' final game of last season against Brighton after an ankle problem dogged him and required a minor surgical procedure and injections until finally the pain began to subside. Solanke returned to the starting line-up on Tuesday night and bagged the second goal of the 2-0 win against Borussia Dortmund as Wilson Odobert's low cross hit his right foot, then left foot and then right foot again before crossing the line.
"It wasn’t the cleanest of goals, but I got to see it go in in slow motion which was nice!" joked the forward. "I’m just excited to be back playing. It was my first start since last season which was a great feeling. To get the win was the most important thing. Hopefully we can build on that now."
Solanke admitted the past eight months have been a rollercoaster with his ankle issues appearing to ease only to return before finally he was finally able to move past them in recent weeks.
"It’s been one of the hardest moments of my life. It has been quite complicated. It has been really tough, but I’m just happy to be back now and hope to be fit for the rest of the season," he said.
"I wouldn’t say it went that far [that I would be out for the 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 and I didn’t have that, so that was probably the hardest part. But I’m happy to be back now."
Solanke has had to watch on as Spurs have struggled for goals without him with Thomas Frank's side sitting 14th in the Premier League and he's been desperate to help.
"It’s been on my mind 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," he said. "That’s one of the hardest parts of being injured."
Solanke has not been involved with England since his injury woes and he hopes he's returned at the perfect time to catch Thomas Tuchel's eye to add to his three England appearances ahead of the World Cup this summer.
"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," said the former Bournemouth striker. "Obviously, the World Cup is on my mind as well so I’ll be pushing for that too."
Solanke was back in Spurs' Champions League squad after Frank activated a UEFA rule to restore him at the expense of Mathys Tel, who had stepped for the injured front man.
"Football is tough at the end of the day, there’s a lot of hard decisions that have to be made," admitted Solanke after playing 70 minutes in the game. "The manager made his decision. Obviously I’m delighted to be back in the squad today and help the team.
"I think I’m probably one of the more experienced players now. It’s something I need to bring to the team. We’ve got a young squad so I need to use my experience to help them."
Solanke cannot understand why once again Tottenham are having a season that features a strong European campaign, with qualification to the knockout stages assured, only to run alongside a poor Premier League one.
"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 go on these cup runs, it gives us extra belief," he said. "You saw tonight the performance we put in. 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 European knockout football to look forward to]. 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."
A victory at manager-less Frankfurt would guarantee Tottenham miss out on the play-off round and jump straight into the round of 16. Solanke is looking forward to returning to the Deutsche Bank Park, where he scored the winning goal from the spot in the Europa League quarter-final in April last year.
"It’s going to be another big game. We have the opportunity when we go there. We'll be looking forward to it, it’s not going to be easy, but we’ve got another game on the weekend to focus on [first]," he said.
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