Andre Villas-Boas: 'Gylfi Sigurdsson, Lewis Holtby can cover for Gareth Bale'

Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas has said that he is confident his squad can cover the absence of Gareth Bale.

The Portuguese cited playmakers Gylfi Sigurdsson and Lewis Holtby as the two most likely to fill the void left by Bale, who came off on a stretcher in Thursday's Europa League match against Basel and will be out for a couple of weeks.

"We have suffered setbacks before and managed to jump out of them so let's wait and see," said Villas-Boas ahead of today's visit of Everton in the Premier League.

"We've had [Bale's] absence before in different moments of the season and we had people stepping up to the game. When an injury happens to a player who has played most of the time it allows another player to step in.

"We have those players - Sigurdsson has gone back to his goalscoring form, scoring two during the internationals and once against Basel, and Holtby was also at a very, very good level."

Spurs could strengthen their grip on third place in the table if they triumph and Chelsea slip up against Sunderland.