Tottenham have injuries galore and just four Premier League matches left and that has left some wondering if reinforcements can return
Roberto De Zerbi has just four games to keep Tottenham in the Premier League but has an ever-decreasing squad of players to ensure it happens.
Spurs have lost Xavi Simons to the club's fourth anterior cruciate ligament injury in the past 15 months after the Dutchman was stretchered off in the second half of Saturday's victory at Wolves. Earlier in the game, De Zerbi also lost striker Dominic Solanke to a hamstring issue and the Tottenham boss is set to deliver the latest news on the England striker at his press conference on Friday afternoon.
That means De Zerbi is currently without Xavi, Solanke, captain Cristian Romero, Mohammed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert and Ben Davies, while Pape Matar Sarr, Guglielmo Vicario, James Maddison and Destiny Udogie were all unavailable for the game at Molineux.
If that situation continues into this weekend's match at Aston Villa, then that means 11 first team players remain unavailable for the Italian head coach and some supporters have asked whether this dire injury crisis can be eased by recalling some of the club's loan players after their final fixtures this weekend.
Will Lankshear has been earning plaudits aplenty with 12 goals for struggling Oxford United, despite their relegation from the Championship, and the in-form 21-year-old striker closes out his campaign with Spurs team-mate Jamie Donley at Millwall on Saturday afternoon.
There is also Mikey Moore, who has been nominated this week for the PFA Scotland Player of the Year award after an eye-catching season at Rangers. The 18-year-old attacker won Rangers' Young Player of the Year award this week as well, but Rangers also have four big matches yet to play anyway in the coming weeks.
Between Moore and Lankshear alone, the duo have played 89 matches this campaign in a huge season of development for both. Other players who have EFL seasons that end long before Tottenham's include Alfie Devine, Ashley Phillips, Yang Min Hyeok and Yusuf Akhamrich, who has been on fire for Bristol Rovers with a stream of spectacular goals in League Two.
FOLLOW OUR TOTTENHAM FB PAGE! Latest Spurs news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page
However, Tottenham are not believed to be able to go down the route of recalling anyone to play as Premier League loan players are essentially de-registered from the parent club and re-registered elsewhere and that cannot change back until the next registration period opens, which in this case would be the summer transfer window.
The guidance is that other than the early recall of a goalkeeper in exceptional circumstances, no other player on a long-term loan - full or half season - will be permitted to return to their parent club outside of a transfer window and play first team football. So if a loan recall happens outside a window, the player may train but not be eligible for matches until the next registration period unless special exceptions exist.
The rules do appear to have changed at some point in the past 10 years - there were a new bunch of them for the 2019/20 campaign - because way back in the 2013/14 season, midfielder Alex Pritchard came back from loan at Swindon when their season ended and came off the bench in the final game of the season for Spurs and made his debut against Aston Villa.
There have been some suggestions that loan rules were also different back then for youth players, which does not help injury-hit Tottenham in their current situation.