Jose Mourinho: Tottenham squad injury-free but players won't reach potential on Premier League return
Jose Mourinho has confirmed he will have a full squad available when the Premier League returns, but warns his Tottenham players will not be able to reach their potential straight away.
Spurs were facing particular difficulties when the Premier League was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic: Mourinho's men were without a win in six and slipped to eighth in the table, seven points adrift of Chelsea in the Champions League race.
After a successful start to his Tottenham career, Mourinho lost Harry Kane, Moussa Sissoko, Heung-min Son and January signing Steven Bergwijn to long-term injuries, with the north London club subsequently crashing out of both the FA Cup and the Champions League.
The three-time Premier League winner has been handed a significant boost, however, with an injury-free squad to pick from when Premier League football makes its return, although Mourinho acknowledges the current training restrictions are providing certain limitations.
"I cannot say in this moment they are ready to play because one thing is to recover from an injury, and another is to be ready to play football," Mourinho told Sky Sports.
"In Harry's case, I think for about five months he hasn't played, but all of them are not injured anymore. They are training, and training is what it is at the moment, training has a lot of limitations.
"We cannot compete, we cannot do one versus one, we have to keep a certain distance, we cannot compete."
Premier League clubs are expected to approve a return to contact training in a shareholders' video meeting today, which Mourinho believes will help his players move closer to full fitness.
"Harry Kane, Son, Bergwijn, Sissoko, all of them are fine. I think with a couple of weeks of normal training, when the authorities tell us we can train normally I think in a couple of weeks, the boys will be ready to play, of course not in the maximum of their potential, I think nobody can do that in this moment.
"For us, of course, it is a great feeling, because we finished the period with that defeat at Leipzig, where we were really, really in trouble to have 11 players, including attacking players, and in this moment (Erik) Lamela, Son, Dele (Alli), Harry Kane, Bergwijn, everybody is fit now."
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