Dejan Kulusevski will miss Tottenham's Champions League game at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday, despite training with the squad on Tuesday morning.
Kulusevski, a key player for Antonio Conte's side, has been missing since returning from last month's internationals with a hamstring strain and is now targeting a return in Saturday's Premier League game against Everton.
"Deki [Kulusevski] is almost ready," Conte told a pre-match press conference. "Yesterday, he had an MRI [scan] and the MRI was really, really positive. But I spoke with the doctors and they said tomorrow we can have five per cent risk.
“I don't want to take risks because Deki is an important player for us and it'd be stupid to risk him and lose him for the rest of the nine games [before the World Cup].
"A bit of patience and we'll face this situation without him in the best way. With Everton he'll probably be available to play."
In more positive news for Conte, Lucas Moura will be on the bench against Frankfurt after recovering from an inflamed tendon.
The Brazilian has not featured since the 2-2 draw with Chelsea in August but has now had three training sessions with the squad.
With Kulusevski still unavailable, Conte could stick with the 3-5-2 system from Saturday's 1-0 win over Brighton.
"We try to use the best formation but not to lose our identity," the Italian said.
"It [3-5-2] could be a good option for the future. We'll see. We go game by game. We have to face injuries. It was important to give a bit of rest to Richarlison [against Brighton] because Kulu and Moura weren't available. I think it's positive to have an alternative to 3-4-3."
