Tottenham Hotspur are now just days away from returning to competitive action when they face Brentford on Boxing Day.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY, Antonio Conte provided an update on which Tottenham players will play against Nice tonight.
Although many of his World Cup stars have now returned to training, the Italian may wish to manage their minutes.
The likes of Ivan Perisic and Cristian Romero won’t be involved given they featured right at the end of the tournament.
In fact, Conte faces a big decision on the Croatian, who played more minutes than any other Premier League outfield player.
There are a number of players who have used the mid-season break to really impress Conte.
Several Tottenham academy stars have featured in their friendlies so far, although they’re less like to play against Nice tonight.
Instead, players have who been on the fringes of featuring in the league this season might finally get a chance to impress at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Tottenham play Nice tonight, Conte set to give young players opportunities
Conte gave an update ahead of Spurs’ final warm-up game on the players who might feature tonight.
“It will be a good opportunity to see young players tomorrow and give space and time to players who previously didn’t play a lot, like [Bryan] Gil, [Harvey] White and Pape Sarr,” Conte said.
“I hope also to recover Skippy for tomorrow but today he didn’t train because he has a fever.”
This suggests that Tottenham fans might finally get to see Pape Matar Sarr in the flesh tonight.
Since arriving from Metz for nearly £15m last summer, Sarr has yet to make his competitive debut.
He spent last season back on loan in France, but Conte decided to keep him with the first-team squad for this campaign.
Since signing for Tottenham, Sarr was won the African Cup of Nations and gone to the World Cup with Senegal.
Sadly, he barely featured in Qatar, but it now looks like the central midfielder will play for Tottenham against Nice tonight.
Sarr has plenty of players currently above him in the pecking order at Spurs in midfield
The likes of Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg would have been brilliant to learn off in training.
But it’s surely time for Sarr to find another loan move in January so he can start racking up more senior minutes.
He’s very highly regarded in France, and was brilliant for Metz last campaign.
Another move across the Channel to a stronger club might be the best option for the 20-year-old.
