Tottenham's Mousa Dembele expected to be fit for West Ham clash despite calf problem

Sidelined: Dembele has been ruled out of Belgium's game against Italy
(Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Tom Collomosse13 November 2015

Mousa Dembele should be fit for Tottenham’s derby at West Ham next Sunday despite missing Belgium’s friendly with Italy due to a calf problem.

The midfielder has been ruled out of tonight’s match against the Azzurri after feeling pain in the muscle earlier this week, which forced him to miss training.

However, the damage is not thought to be serious and Dembele could even return in time for next week’s meeting with European champions Spain.

Belgium coach Marc Wilmots said: “We are working on an individual programme with Mousa to get him ready for the game against Spain. Because he was not certain to play, I selected an extra midfielder, [Anderlecht’s] Steven Defour.”

Five key issues for Tottenham during the international break

1/5

Since returning to the Tottenham team for last month’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool, Dembele has shown some of his best form since he joined the club from Fulham for £15million in summer 2012.

Before he recovered from an injury picked up against Everton in August, Dembele’s Spurs future was uncertain, with Napoli interested in signing him in January. But the 28-year-old has since established himself as a key man for Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Meanwhile, Andros Townsend is set to rejoin the first-team squad in time for that game with West Ham.

Due to a clash with fitness coach Nathan Gardiner following the 2-0 win over Aston Villa on November 2, the winger was excluded by Pochettino from the games against Anderlecht and Arsenal that preceded the international break.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in