Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has given an update on the fitness of two of his missing stars.
This weekend, Spurs face Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in one of the games of the season. It's a game which is always highly anticipated but there's even more intrigue wrapped up in this one as Pochettino is one of the favourites to be the next permanent Red Devils boss.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has won every game since taking over from the sacked Jose Mourinho as interim manager and he has stated that he'd be interested in the job on a permanent basis.
Pochettino has been asked about whether he'd be interested in taking the Old Trafford job but he has been professionally diplomatic in his responses.
When asked about the chances of Vertonghen and Dembele playing against United, Pochettino said: "I don't believe Mousa, still not match fit. He's training with the group, but not match fit.
"Vertonghen I need to assess because we have plenty of centre-backs. He's in the same position as Mousa. We'll see if we have a space in the starting XI, bench or not."
Pochettino was asked whether he thought Solskjaer would come to Wembley with extra motivation to do well as he seeks to stake a claim to be United's next full-time boss.
"When you are a manager or a coach you cannot be focused on the rumours, we have to do our job in the best way." he said. "Manchester United will come on Sunday to try and win. For him is a massive motivation to manage Manchester United, in the same way it is massive for me to manage Tottenham."
@ericdier (appendicitis) has started to join in with some team training sessions and remains unavailable.
@LucasMoura7 (knee) is being assessed ahead of Sunday's match.
@VictorWanyama (knee) is progressing to late stages of rehabilitation.
#COYS
