Tottenham has missed Wanyama, says Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful Victor Wanyama can play an important role over the festive period for Spurs.

Midfielder Victor Wanyama has missed almost the entirety of the first half of this season.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino admitted Spurs has missed Victor Wanyama this season as the midfielder nears a return.

Spurs has been without Wanyama since its 2-1 loss to Premier League champion Chelsea in August – the Kenyan aggravating a knee injury.

While Saturday's clash against sixth-placed Burnley will come too soon for Wanyama, Pochettino is hopeful the 26-year-old can play an important role over the festive period.

"We need to see how he reacts, his knee," said Pochettino, whose Tottenham is seventh and a point behind Burnley. "But it's a very good feeling from him. We will see when he can be involved again. Last season, he was such an important player for us.

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"And this season, it's true. In a position that you need to be strong, we have missed a player like him. It will be fantastic if, as soon as possible, he can be again involved and available to be selected because he is a very good player; a very important player for us."

Tottenham assistant Jesus Perez added: "During pre-season, on the same day, he had two incidents. And he carried on training. Then, we went to America and he played some minutes against PSG [in a friendly] and then we protected him until the second game of the season against Chelsea.

"And he had a bad reaction from that game. We tried all the conservative measures to avoid anything major [such as an operation] and, so far, it has worked well. And he has reacted very well to the last couple of training sessions."