Jose Mourinho hopes to have Tanguy Ndombele available for selection for Saturday's trip to Norwich.
Ndombele played no part in Tottenham's 2-1 victory over Brighton on Boxing Day after declaring himself unfit due to a problem with his abductor muscle.
Mourinho implicitly criticised the France international for not making himself available, but he hopes Ndombele will feel sufficiently fit to play at Carrow Road.
“I think Ndombele was honest. Football players like to play football," he said.
“For him to say, ‘I don’t feel confident, I don’t feel in the best condition due to my previous injuries’, he was just being honest. And we had solutions. We had [Eric] Dier, we had [Harry]) Winks, we have [Oliver] Skipp who is a great kid fighting to improve, for a place.
“We had solutions, against Norwich less solutions. But let’s see. I hope Friday morning after training he can come back to me and say ‘I’m ready to help the team’."
Mourinho was delighted with Erik Lamela for telling the Tottenham boss that he was ready to return from a hamstring injury after just two training sessions.
"Lamela, he was fantastic. I think it was 56 or 57 days that he didn’t train with the team," he added.
“He was injured, he was training individually. He trained with the team twice, after 57 days he trained twice with the team and he came to me and said, ‘I think you need me because you are in trouble with injuries, suspensions, no Sonny [Son Heung-min]. If you want me I am there. If you need me for 10 or 15 minutes I’m there’.
“So he was there if we needed him to try to score a goal. He was there. That’s the kind of thing that touches me. I like players that make sacrifices for the team.”
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