Oliver Skipp has stated that he now feels "100 per cent" after making his first Tottenham start since January. A key part of Antonio Conte's midfield before he missed the final four months of last campaign with a pubis injury which resulted in him going under the knife, the 22-year-old returned in pre-season only to sustain a hairline fracture in his heel.
Despite making his return to the Tottenham squad at the end of August, the midfielder had to make do with minutes here and there from the substitutes' bench before the head coach handed him a start against Newcastle on Sunday.
One of Tottenham's standout performers on a disappointing day after impressing in his midfield role and showing some real purpose when he was on the ball, Skipp still feels that he could have performed better, which in turn will only benefit Conte's team once he reaches his very best.
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"It's not been the most ideal nine months since that (Leicester City) game," he told SPURSPLAY. "It's nice to be out there but's it always hard to reflect on that when the result is what it is. It's nice to be back on the grass but I would have liked to have performed a bit better and helped the team to get that victory."
He added: "I feel 100 per cent. Training hard and obviously that rhythm will start to come with the more training time and game time I get. I need to keep pushing and making sure when I do get those opportunities that I can take them, perform better and better each time."
The 2-1 defeat at home to Newcastle rounded off a bad week for the club after Manchester United also got the better of them four days earlier. Needing to bounce back on Wednesday evening when they host Sporting CP in the Champions League, Skipp doesn't believe Tottenham are "miles off" despite back-to-back losses.
"The way out of this is to work hard, to reflect on those last couple of games and there are plenty of things to improve on and we'll be doing everything we can to make sure that come Wednesday that happens," he explained.
"That's a massive game and everybody is going to be up for it and they'll make sure that we've got that extra 5%. It doesn't feel like we're miles off."
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