Ange Postecoglou has admitted that a number of his Tottenham players could miss out on their pre-season tour squad which flies out to Perth on Friday.
The 57-year-old takes his squad to Australia, Thailand and Singapore for his first three matches as their head coach in the next fortnight. However, a variety of reasons will ensure that certain members of his Tottenham squad will be left at home when the flight takes on off Friday.
Postecoglou confirmed to football.london that some players will miss out on the scheduled departure to his homeland because of injury, and that two are definitely out.
"We do have a couple who are [injured], obviously Rodrigo Bentancur has got his injury and is still a little bit off. Fraser Forster has got a bit of a back injury, which means he won't travel and won't be able to participate," he said. "There are a couple of others who are touch and go at the moment.
"We will see how they go for the next few days. For me, I would really like as many of the group along as possible because it is the best way to figure out how we set up our environment and sort of the culture around the group if everyone is there. But if it is going to be beneficial for some guys to stay back, we'll make that decision. I don't think there will be too many in that boat at the moment."
football.london understands that Djed Spence and Troy Parrott are among other Spurs players who are in a race to be fit to take part in the tour following respective knee and groin injuries.
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The majority of the international players return this week to Hotspur Way and Postecoglou will have to decide which of the squad members who have uncertain futures at the club will be allowed to remain in England to find new clubs.
Club captain Hugo Lloris has publicly declared that he is looking for a new challenge and could be allowed to miss the tour in order to find his next move.
Others including Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso could be handed the opportunity to remain and look for regular football next season while Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has been linked with leaving the club this summer, with Atletico Madrid among the clubs interested in the Denmark international, as has Ivan Perisic.
One player who Postecoglou told football.london he has been impressed with in his first week of pre-season is Tanguy Ndombele, who has returned from his loan season at Napoli.
"Tanguy has been good. He is working hard at training, to be fair they all are, they have got no option," he said. "Again, I take things as I see them. For me, he is obviously a very talented footballer, he was part of team that won Serie A last year and within that context, I am pleased to have him here and part of the group.
"What that means long-term, again I will not get into the definite of that because a lot of that will depend on how the team shapes up and how he shapes up.
"He may decide this is not for him. I'm not sure. Like I said, the group I have had in so far have been really good at embracing the change of direction, the way we are doing things. As I said, once we get all the other guys in, it will be great to see how everyone measures up and decisions will be made moving forward from there over who will be involved and who won't."
