Ange Postecoglou has admitted Tottenham defender Cristian Romero is "not ready" to make his return to the squad ahead of the Europa League clash against Hoffenheim.

The central defender last featured against Chelsea on December 8, with a muscle injury ruling the Argentine out for a number of weeks. The 26-year-old did return to Tottenham training on Wednesday, though, and is expected to be back in a Spurs shirt in the next week or so.

Elsewhere, Postecoglou revealed Pape Matar Sarr will play no part in the clash in Germany on Thursday after picking up a knock in the 3-2 loss at Everton. Speaking to the media on Wednesday evening, Postecoglou said: "From the last game, obviously there’s a couple of players ineligible, Djed and Reguilon. I think the only other one is Pape who got a slight knock from the weekend so he's out. Then we get Bentancur back. I think he's the only one."

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The Australian added: "Yeah, he tried to train but he was still a bit sore from the weekend. We're hoping it won't be anything that keeps him out for too long. A chance for him at the weekend but the turnaround was too quick."

On Romero, Postecoglou said: "He's training but he's not travelled. He's not playing. Probably another week to 10 days for him."

Djed Spence and Sergio Reguilon are not available for Thursday's clash as they were not named in Tottenham's Europa League squad back in September, while Antonin Kinsky won't be able to feature in Europe for Spurs until the knockout round of the competition. That is because changes to a club's 25-man squad can only be made before the knockout stage once the league phase has come to a conclusion.

Elsewhere, Dominic Solanke, Guglielmo Vicario, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie, Yves Bissouma, Brennan Johnson, Wilson Odobert and Timo Werner are all out injured. In more positive news, Rodrigo Bentancur was spotted in training on Wednesday and could make his return against Hoffenheim.

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