‘Don’t want to force him’ – Conte on Kulusevski’s chances of facing Liverpool

Antonio Conte has admitted that Dejan Kulusevski could make the bench for Tottenham’s clash against Liverpool.

Kulusevski has been out of action with a hamstring problem since the international break at the end of September. The Swede’s absence has certainly been felt by the Lilywhites, particularly with Richarlison also being sidelined with a calf injury.

Dejan Kulusevski
Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images

To make matters worse, Son Heung-min is now also out of action after fracturing his eye socket in four places following a nasty head collision against Marseille on Tuesday, with the South Korean going under the knife to fix the problem on Friday (Telegraph).

Conte has now admitted that Lucas Moura is also a doubt for the clash against on Sunday, explaining that the Brazilian has complained of pain in his tendon.

However, the Italian gave a positive update regarding Kulusevski, revealing that the Swede trained with the squad on Friday. The Tottenham head coach remarked that he will make a decision on the 22-year-old’s availability depending on how the winger feels about his progress.

Conte said (via Alasdair Gold): “Deki had half of the training session with us today. Tomorrow we’ll see. For sure, I want to speak with the player to ask if his feeling is positive.

“I don’t want to force him, that’s not right, but it would be very important if he gives me the availability to come on the bench, and then the possibility to play for 10, 20, 30 minutes.

“If you are on the bench, you are ready to help us in the game. Lucas is up and down with his tendon. He still has pain. Today, he told me this, and I asked him to wait and try to suffer in these last three games, and then we will try to find the best solution.

“For sure, we are talking about a player that is not 100 per cent. If you add all these difficulties, then you understand how we are fighting with big effort to overcome this period.”

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Reading between the lines, it sounds like Conte will push Lucas Moura to start the game on Sunday and play through pain, and the Spurs boss is hopeful that Kulusevski would be able to come off the bench and give him around 30 minutes.

With neither Kulusevski nor Moura going to the World Cup, the Spurs coaching staff might feel that they can push the pair to be involved in the next three matches, knowing that they have a month and a half to recover even if they were to aggravate their problem.

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