Tottenham Hotspur have been given a huge boost ahead of their clash against Liverpool. Next week, Arne Slot and Ange Postecoglou will lock horns at Anfield in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, with a place in the final at Wembley Stadium up for grabs.

The Lilywhites clambered past the Premier League leaders in the first leg earlier this month, with Lucas Bergvall netting a late winner to give his side a one-goal advantage. Tottenham may have come out on top, but they've since struggled to impress, winning just two of their last five games.

Meanwhile, Liverpool bounced back from the defeat in North London with aplomb; they went unbeaten in their next five games before a second-string lineup lost 3-2 to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

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While the Reds may fancy their chances against Spurs on home turf, Postecoglou looks set to welcome back some big names to his starting lineup. Micky van de Ven, Yves Bissouma and Richarlison were all spotted in Tottenham training ahead of their Europa League clash against IF Elfsborg.

There was no sign of Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr or James Maddison, who's currently nursing a calf problem. Meanwhile, Cristian Romero was doing gym work, and Guglielmo Vicario appeared to be working with the other goalkeepers.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Postecoglou confirmed that Van de Ven has returned from injury. The Spurs boss said: "Micky is good. He is good to go and we will try to get him some match minutes tomorrow. That’s the plan. Let’s see how much we can get out of him tomorrow.

"He has a good week/10 days training with the team and is in good condition so he is fine. In terms of the other guys, Madders has a calf strain so he is probably two to three weeks.

"He picked that up in the Hoffenheim game which was a week ago almost. Pape is okay, he still has got a bit of a niggle but he is okay and available. Biss is available. I think that is it for tomorrow night at this stage."

On Romero, Postecoglou added: "Cuti's still a bit of a slow burner. We're mindful his injury was a bit different and he's still got to tick a few boxes so, yeah, not for the horizon at the moment in terms of this weekend. We'll see how he goes after."

Then, on the Lilywhites' injury crisis, he said: "It's well chronicled. Earlier in the year it was a different issue, we were kind of dealing with guys coming back and getting injured.

"But since probably late November, it's been logical that with the workload of the players we'll be getting niggles along the way and people picking up things. That's a natural consequence and not something that really we can do much about obviously. It hasn't been something you're surprised by."

With Van de Ven back in action, Tottenham have been given a huge boost to their hopes of defeating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg next week. Some other big names could also return from the treatment in the coming days, so the Reds could have their work cut out on February 6.