Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that Pedro Porro is available for Sunday's Premier League clash with Aston Villa at Villa Park, but Richarlison is not ready to return.
The Spanish right-back has been unavailable for Spurs' last two matches with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace due to a strain, allowing Emerson Royal to come back into the XI.
Prior to last weekend's 3-1 win over Palace, Postecoglou revealed that Porro was "another week away" from returning, suggesting that he would be on track to feature in the West Midlands this weekend.
Speaking to reporters in Friday's press conference, as quoted by football.london, the Australian revealed that Porro had trained with no complications and would be fine to feature on Sunday, saying: "Everyone from last week is fit and available. Coming back. Pedro [Porro] is good, he's trained all week so no problem."
With Porro fit again, the former Sporting Lisbon man is expected to make a swift return to the starting lineup over Emerson, but the crunch top-four clash comes too soon for Richarlison to return from a knee problem.
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Postecoglou announced last week that the Brazilian would need up to a month to recuperate, but after watching the win over Palace from the stands, Richarlison told ESPN Brasil that he was already running again and was hopeful of playing at Villa Park.
However, the striker's comments were premature, as Postecoglou confirmed that he was yet to return to team training, adding: "Everyone else, including Richy, is still not training with the main group so unavailable."
Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring), Fraser Forster (foot) and Manor Solomon (knee) also remain unavailable for Tottenham, whose top-four destiny will officially be in their own hands if they triumph against Unai Emery's men this weekend.
The fifth-placed Lilywhites are five points behind the fourth-placed Lions, but they have a game in hand over their hosts, who come into the clash on the back of a taxing Europa Conference League trip to Ajax.
Nevertheless, Postecoglou has remained consistent with his stance that he is not setting specific targets for the end of the season and simply wants to instil an unwavering sense of "competitiveness" within his players.
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"Look, I think I've said all along, I didn't have any specific targets. It was one of those, because if you... say our target was we wanted to finish in the top four, we're there or thereabouts at the moment," Postecoglou added.
"That might mean that the players or even the club gets comfortable. I just don't want us to even be in that sort of position. My belief was that we would be very competitive this year. And I thought we would definitely improve on last year, and see where that takes us.
"I think for the most part we've handled everything that's happened this year, like I said, the first year of trying to build something, I think we've handled it for the most part pretty well. I think we've been competitive in just about every game we've played this year, which as a manager that's what you're looking for.
"Form, results and performances have fluctuated, but not our competitiveness. Even the games we've lost we've been in. And even the wins where maybe we haven't been convincing in, we've still been very, very competitive and that's a good place to start."
Spurs travel to Villa Park aiming to snap a three-game losing run against the Lions, who prevailed 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium earlier in the campaign, but not since 1996 have the Lilywhites been beaten in four matches on the trot against Villa.
Ben Knapton
