Tottenham boss Thomas Frank has been given a major boost ahead of Sunday’s trip to north London rivals Arsenal with forward Randal Kolo Muani available.
The Paris St Germain loanee suffered a blow to his jaw in Spurs’ 2-2 draw with Manchester United on November 8 and subsequently missed international duty with France.
He joined a lengthy injury list for Tottenham, but Frank provided positive updates on a number of players and Kolo Muani can unexpectedly play after he was fitted with a protective mask in order to train this week.
“Pape (Sarr) trained today, ready and available. Lucas (Bergvall) trained today and is available. Kolo Muani, yes trained today, available – of course he has a mask he needs to play with,” Frank revealed.
Defenders Ben Davies and Kota Takai also returned to training this week and centre-back Radu Dragusin took part in a behind-closed-doors friendly earlier this month to step up his recovery after he sustained anterior cruciate ligament damage in January.
Archie Gray is another back and Mohammed Kudus, who missed international duty with Ghana, has also returned to training in a further boost for Frank.
James Maddison, Yves Bissouma and Dejan Kulusevski remain sidelined along with Dominic Solanke, who has not featured since August 23 and had minor surgery on his ankle last month.
Frank added: “Dom is not ready yet. We are very aware that when we put him out there, we want to be as sure as we can that there will be no setback going forward. I am comfortable he will soon be ready.”
Ex-Brentford boss Frank has only one win in nine competitive meetings with Arsenal, but did get the better of Mikel Arteta’s men in a pre-season friendly in Hong Kong in July.
“Yeah this is the real one. Super excited. Of course before I stepped into the club I knew about the north London derby, but it’s when you’re in it, you sense it and feel that this is important,” Frank said.
“You feel it from the fans, you feel it from the staff members, the players, the people that have been working here for years. This is the big one.
“I always say the next game is the most important game, I always have that, but I’m very, very, very aware there’s two games in a year that’s even more important and this is the first of them.
“We’re ready, we’re up for it, we’re looking forward to it and we’ll do everything we can to win.”
A big focus ahead of Sunday’s match at the Emirates will be on the club’s two set-piece coaches and Arsenal’s Nicolas Jover started under Frank at Brentford, which was also the case for Spurs’ Andreas Georgson.
“Well, it is very simple. I educated both of them at Brentford,” Frank smiled.
“I think maybe some of it is the bit we did at Brentford where we really laser-focused on it and used a lot of time to excel to a high level.”
