Antonio Conte has revealed that Dejan Kulusevski has been involved in Tottenham training with the rest of the squad. Missing out in the team's last ten games after sustaining a hamstring injury while on international duty with Sweden, the Spurs youngster had half a training session with the team at Hotspur Way on Friday.
As well as Kulusevski training, Rodrigo Bentancur was involved and "much better" after coming off with a knock late on in Tuesday's 2-1 win over Marseille. However, there are now question marks over Lucas Moura as he was suffering with some pain, while Richarlison and Cristian Romero remain out.
READ MORE: Tottenham press conference LIVE: Conte on Son surgery, Bentancur, Kulusevski and Liverpool
"It is better to start with a smile. (Laughs) Yeah, we need to face this situation. I said also before we have to try to finish these three games in the best possible way," explained the Italian. "We have these injuries and I can confirm Richarlison is not available for the game. It is the same for Romero but Bentancur is much better. Today he was part of the training session. It was the same for Kulusevski, today he had half training session with us.
"The problem is Lucas Moura is having some different faces for his pain in his tendon. Today he was really bad and he said to me he was really worried for this but I ask of him to try to be available because we need. Also Sonny you know is having now surgery. At the end, we have to be happy for qualification for the Champions League and now we have to try to finish these last three games in the best possible way."
Pushed on some concerns from fans that Romero may be focused more on Argentina's World Cup campaign, Conte stressed that his defender would play on one leg if he had the possibility of playing for Tottenham.
"No, but about Romero I can tell you that for him, if I ask the possibility to play with one leg, he wants to play with one leg," he added. "For this reason I tell the fans we have players really committed for the club and maybe Romero, he had an injury because he wanted to risk and we wanted to take risk. Then he had this injury but for sure many teams are having big injuries and this is because we are playing every three days.
"I think we are seeing this situation is impossible, it is impossible for the future and it would be important for the future to understand because many times I hear about the welfare of the players but it is only a polite way to show that you are really interested in the welfare of the players, because they are not really worried about the welfare of the players if the schedule is this. In every moment you show that the most important thing is the show must go on and then please I don't want to hear in the future, to listen about people speaking about the welfare of the players because this is not true."
READ NEXT:
Antonio Conte can play Tottenham wildcard vs Liverpool after Son Heung-min injury
Tottenham's best and worst case Champions League Round of 16 draw scenarios facing Antonio Conte
What Rodrigo Bentancur did after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg Spurs Champions League goal vs Marseille
Tottenham's January transfer window plans take shape as Antonio Conte suffers with Spurs fans
Harry Kane praises Hugo Lloris, Cristian Stellini and Ryan Mason for rousing half-time words
