Vincent Janssen will be added to Tottenham’s Premier League squad… even though he hasn’t played for Spurs since August 2017

Striking absence | Janssen has not played for Spurs in nearly 18 months
Andrew Matthews/PA Wire
Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP4 February 2019

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino told Vincent Janssen at a meeting on Friday lunchtime that he would be included in the club’s Premier League squad, having not played for Spurs since August 2017.

The unwanted Dutch striker failed to seal a move away from the club before Thursday’s main transfer deadline and Spurs do not expect him to be willing to join a Chinese or Russian club, who can still sign players until the end of the month.

Janssen’s career at Spurs appeared to have reached the finishing line many months ago and it will be intriguing to see how many opportunities — if any — he is given between now and the end of the season, with Fernando Llorente the main back-up for Harry Kane, and Heung-min Son and Lucas Moura also able to play through the middle.

Moura started in that position in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Newcastle, when Son’s late winner briefly took Spurs second in the League.

Meanwhile, Kane will start kicking a ball again this week, raising hopes that he could return to fitness well ahead of schedule.

The striker has missed Tottenham’s past five games after suffering ankle ligament damage in last month’s Premier League defeat by Man Utd at Wembley.

Spurs said Kane was expected to return to training in early March, but he is confident of being fit before then, having suffered a similar injury on three previous occasions.

Tottenham squad 2019-20 | Injuries, contracts and squad numbers

1/27

Kane posted a training video from the Bahamas on Thursday, showing him doing a variety of ankle strengthening exercises, and he will start ball-work on his return to Spurs this week.

“It’s going well,” Kane told Sky Sports in Atlanta, where he travelled to watch last night’s Super Bowl.

“I went away for some warm-weather training and we’re stepping it up. [We will] see next week how we go, start to get the balls out and just see how the ankle reacts."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in