Mauricio to be 'clever' with World Cup stars

Mauricio Pochettino will put the players’ wellbeing above all else as we approach the start of the season.

With the remainder of our World Cup stars returning to Hotspur Way this week following on from our final pre-season friendly against Girona at the weekend, all roads now lead to St James’ Park for our Premier League opener against Newcastle United on Saturday at 12.30pm.

Explaining to Spurs TV how he plans to integrate the returning players into training ahead of the game, Mauricio said: “It’s a massive challenge for us after we tried to provide the team a good rest.

“(For) the players that were involved in the World Cup, it was massive and so important to give a very good rest and recovery after a very tough season and World Cup and now it’s a big challenge for us to try to provide them with the best tools to be competitive as soon as possible.

“Always we need to assess them. We will see on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday then Thursday and Friday to take a decision for the team.

“If some players are ready, of course we are going to use them but we are not going to take some risks because sometimes for one game, you lose the players for one month or two months and that is (why it’s) so important to be clever in the decisions that we are going to take.”