Tottenham’s Erik Lamela could be back in action at Southampton on December 28 after returning to training after a hip injury.

The Argentinian has been out of action since October 25, and manager Mauricio Pochettino admitted at the start of this month that he was “a little bit worried” about the 24-year-old’s slow rate of recovery.

Lamela will be missing again tomorrow when Spurs host Hull City in the Premier League - along with Mousa Dembele and Vincent Janssen - but Pochettino has now delivered a positive update on his fitness.

“He was back in London yesterday [after a trip home for personal reasons],” said Spurs’ manager. “He’s training. He’s much better but now it’s normal that after a few days in Argentina he needs to recover the feeling and start training again.

“We need to assess him and we’ll see in the next few days if he can be available as soon as possible, but we cannot give a date when he will be available again.

“The weekend is maybe too early – maybe Southampton and we’ll see. We hope as soon as possible he can be available and training with the group again.”

Dembele limped off in the second half of Spurs’ 1-0 defeat at Manchester United on Sunday, and Pochettino said: “Mousa will be out for tomorrow and we’ll see for Sunday [against Burnley]. It’s his foot, he got a kick in his foot.

“It’s very painful now and we need to see what happens in the next few days. Maybe he will be available for Sunday.”

Vincent Janssen could be the last of Tottenham’s injured players to return to action.

“He’s still out, it’s a problem with his ankle still,” said Pochettino. “We’ll see, maybe [he’ll be out until] next year. For Sunday he’s out and then we’ll see about Southampton but we’re not sure.”

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