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Richarlison could make his Tottenham return in Wednesday’s EFL Cup trip to Nottingham Forest after recovering from a calf injury, Spurs’ assistant coach Cristian Stellini has confirmed.
Richarlison suffered the injury in Tottenham’s 2-0 win over his former club Everton last month and subsequently said he was worried about missing Brazil’s World Cup campaign.
However, the forward was included in Tite’s 26-man squad for the Selecao’s campaign in Qatar on Monday, and he could feature at the City Ground after returning to training this week.
“Richarlison started training with the team yesterday,” Stellini said on Tuesday. “For us, it’s great news.
“We’ve missed Richarlison, like we’ve missed [Dejan] Kulusevski and everyone we’ve missed in this last month.
“He’s only just started to train with us, we can use him, but we have to be careful, and we work day by day to take the right decision.”
Spurs have battled an injury crisis in recent weeks, only welcoming Kulusevski back from a hamstring injury on Sunday, while Son Heung-min sustained a fracture around his left eye last week.
Stellini warned of the need to manage players’ minutes as the end of a congested pre-World Cup schedule nears, adding: “Antonio [Conte] will take the decision tomorrow for the squad.
“It’s not only Richarlison or Kulusevski, but also, we’ve played 11 matches [since October 1] and many players maybe have a small problem or fatigue to recover [from].
“Kulusevski came back in the last match and has been an important player for us for a long time. We are really happy to use him again.
“He’s an important player, like all the players we have, because in this type of schedule, full of matches, all the players are important.”
