Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte has confirmed that Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur are back in contention for Saturday's Premier League clash with Fulham.
Romero - whose move from Atalanta BC was made permanent in the last knockings of the summer transfer window - was forced to sit out his side's meetings with Nottingham Forest and West Ham United due to an adductor injury.
Meanwhile, Bentancur had started his side's opening four top-flight games before picking up a head injury in the win over Forest, which rendered him unavailable for the midweek London derby.
Both Bentancur and Romero will return to boost Tottenham's options at the weekend, though, with Conte telling reporters on Friday: "Cuti is in the squad, he trained with us after the game against West Ham. Bentancur is OK, he has recovered 100%."
The Spurs boss conceded that Lucas Moura and Bryan Gil are both still unavailable with their physical problems, but the attacking duo are low down the pecking order anyway.
© Reuters
Gil - who is nursing an unspecified issue - was strongly linked with a transfer deadline-day switch to Valencia, but a move did not materialise as Tottenham were unable to quickly find a replacement.
The Spaniard's fellow attacker Lucas, meanwhile, is struggling with a tendon problem, but there is an expectation that the Brazilian will leave the club when his contract expires next summer.
In Bentancur's absence, summer arrival Yves Bissouma was chosen to partner Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the 1-1 draw with West Ham, but Conte has warned the Mali international that he needs to raise his game to earn regular starts.
"He needs to work, go totally into this idea of football. He's a step behind Bentancur and Hojbjerg," Conte added. "I'm pleased with what I've seen during the game, and we are talking about a player with good skills and strong physically, good engine."
Bissouma represents one of seven new signings for Tottenham, who also brought in Destiny Udogie, Fraser Forster, Richarlison, Djed Spence, Clement Lenglet and Ivan Perisic during a busy summer of spending.
© Reuters
However, Conte has affirmed that there is still work to be done for his side to catch up to the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City, claiming that there is "too much distance" between his side and the top clubs.
"First of all we have to understand in this transfer window we did what the club could do," Conte explained. "I think that we did good things but I have to be honest with you because I see other squad of top team there is too much distance, still too much distance.
"For this reason we have to know we have just started this process to try to improve the squad. We also tried to do this in January with Bentancur and [Dejan] Kulusevski.
"I repeat, we are going in the right way for the capacity of this club at the current moment. There are clubs that can invest a lot of money, some that invest normal money. If someone thinks we have completed the situation, we are very far from this."
Tottenham occupy third spot in the Premier League table ahead of the weekend's fixtures, four points adrift of current leaders and bitter rivals Arsenal.
Ben Knapton
