A loan move away from Tottenham for Oliver Skipp is considered unlikely at this stage as Pape Matar Sarr deals with an injury, football.london understands.
Antonio Conte had rotated the two young midfielders with starts before Rodrigo Bentancur's return to injury with the Italian taking a real shine to Sarr after the 20-year-old Senegal international returned early from his World Cup break to work with the Tottenham coaching staff.
That resulted in him getting plenty of game time and his full Premier League debut as Conte threw him into this month's North London Derby.
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However, football.london understands that the talented young midfielder has missed recent games with a hip injury. He is expected to return to action early next month.
Having found minutes hard to come by, Skipp is understood to have been willing to head out on loan for the remainder of the season in order to get his match sharpness back with Crystal Palace, Fulham, Leeds and Bournemouth among the clubs keen to take the England U21 international, who missed the second half of last season with a pelvic injury.
However, Conte is believed to have rejected any prospect of a loan move so far as he rates Skipp highly and is wary of leaving himself short on numbers in central midfield, which means the current chances of a transfer deadline day loan move for the homegrown young midfielder are slim unless the Spurs boss has a late change of heart.
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