Jose Mourinho, Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur during the Tottenham Hotspur training session at Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre on May 20, 2020 in Enfield, England.
Tottenham will welcome back four key first-team players when the Premier League season resumes after the coronavirus lockdown, Jose Mourinho has revealed.
It represents a huge boost for Spurs, who were left with a threadbare squad after injury robbed them of star men like Harry Kane and Son Heung-min earlier this year.
But the Tottenham boss fears that they will struggle to reach their best when they do return due to their extended period on the sidelines.
Kane has not played since limping out of Tottenham's New Year's Day defeat by Southampton with a hamstring problem, while Son has since fulfilled military service after recovering from an arm injury suffered in February.
Mourinho told Sky Sports' The Football Show on Wednesday morning: “I cannot say in this moment they are ready to play because one thing is to recover from an injury, and another is to be ready to play football.
“In Harry's case, I think for about five months he hasn't played, but all of them are not injured any more. They are training, and training is what it is at the moment, training has a lot of limitations. We cannot compete, we cannot do one versus one, we have to keep a certain distance, we cannot compete.
“Harry Kane, Son, Bergwijn, Sissoko, all of them are fine. I think with a couple of weeks of normal training, when the authorities tell us we can train normally I think in a couple of weeks, the boys will be ready to play, of course not in the maximum of their potential, I think nobody can do that in this moment.
“For us, of course, it is a great feeling, because we finished the period with that defeat at Leipzig, where we were really, really in trouble to have 11 players, including attacking players, and in this moment (Erik) Lamela, Son, Dele (Alli), Harry Kane, Bergwijn, everybody is fit now.”
Sissoko required knee surgery in January while January signing Bergwijn was feared to be out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.
Tottenham ended the lockdown period on a run of three games without a win in the Premier League, with their last result being a 1-1 draw at Burnley.
They sit eighth in the table, seven points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea in the hunt for Champions League places.
Tags
Epl
