Leicester v Spurs – team news

Antonio Conte has revealed that three players have returned to training in the last two days following a number of positive COVID-19 cases at the Club last week.

Since our most recent game on 5 December, a 3-0 home win over Norwich City, the presence of the virus among some of the squad forced the temporary closure of the first team facilities at Hotspur Way, with our matches against Stade Rennais in the UEFA Europa League and Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League not being played as scheduled.

We’re set to return to action at Leicester City on Thursday night and while some players may still be absent, Antonio explained that he now has a couple more options at his disposal.

“We started with 13, 14 players… today we had training with 16 players,” he told the media at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “Today, two players are back in training for their first training, yesterday another player, but as you know well, they need to be fit before playing.

“Tomorrow I will bring these players on the bench for 15 or 20 minutes at the end – I think that they have in their legs 20 or 25 minutes to play with us, but I think this is the big problem that we must be good to face in the future.

“Players are back in training and other players are continuing to be isolated but also for the players that are back in training, they need a bit of time to be fit and to find again a good physical condition. When you have COVID, the COVID is not only 10 days. Many times, the virus brings a situation that makes your body not so strong and for this reason you have to go slowly, because you risk having a player injured after COVID. You have to pay great attention to the way they train, if the body is ready to work in a good way – you have to pay attention and you have to moderate the training to avoid problems in the future with injuries. This is the big problem, not only for Tottenham but for other clubs.”

In other news, central defender Cristian Romero remains out with a hamstring injury, while there is a question mark over left-back Sergio Reguilon after he was forced off in the first half against Norwich.

“We have a little problem with Sergio, he’s having training sessions but we don’t know if he’s 100 per cent fit for tomorrow’s game,” Antonio told Spurs TV.

Giovani Lo Celso is back in training after picking up an injury during November’s international break and could feature at the King Power Stadium.

Kick-off is at 7.30pm UK.