Son may need a rest, warns South Korea coach

South Korea's coach warned that Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min may have to be eased in gently when he arrives at the Asian Cup after a frantic few months for club and country.

Son has played nearly 1,000 minutes in 16 games for Spurs already this season, on top of his appearances at last year's World Cup and Korea's title run at the Asian Games.

He will arrive in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, a day after Spurs' Premier League clash with Manchester United, and Portuguese coach Paulo Bento said he was mindful of the player's workload.

"After he arrives we will see what we are going to do in the game against China. We will talk and then we are going to take the best decisions for the team," said Bento.

"So we need to wait for the game that probably he's going to play on Sunday and then check everything he's done in the last months, because he played a lot of games."
"But we need to wait until the game against China or the knockout phase."