Antonio Conte has confirmed that Dejan Kulusevski will not be available for Tottenham's Premier League clash against Everton on Saturday evening. Absent for Spurs' last four matches after sustaining a hamstring injury on international duty, Conte did indicate after the midweek win over Eintracht Frankfurt that the youngster would probably be available for the weekend.
That is unfortunately not the case now with the attacker set for a fifth successive game on the sidelines. Confirming that his players from Wednesday's game are all available once again, Conte has called for a bit of patience when it comes to Kulusevski.
"We are the same players of the last game. Deki is still not available for the game against Everton. The rest of the players are ok," he explained.
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He added: "I think we need to have a bit of patience with him. Don’t take stupid risks. Because we have to play a lot of games from now until November.
"It will be very important to recover him very well. At this moment, he’s not 100% sure to be really fit, to be in perfect physical condition. For this reason it’s good to respect the opinion of the doctors of the players."
Absent for the game against the Toffees, Conte as well as everyone else connected to the club will be hoping Kulusevski is back in time for Wednesday's crunch clash against Manchester United at Old Trafford. However, the 53-year-old is not sure if his man will be ready for the game.
"In this moment, honestly it is a bit difficult to answer yes or not," he admitted. "It depends. It depends on the new MRI he did today about what the doctors say about his situation.
"Also, the feeling of the player. I was a player and in this situation, it is important to respect the feeling of the player because the player has to feel he is OK 100 per cent otherwise I think it is not good to take stupid risk."
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