Thomas Frank spoke about the return of a loanee yet to make an impact at Tottenham.
While Yves Bissouma is struggling with ankle ligament damage and Dominic Solanke is on the mend from surgery, Randal Kolo Muani is back in the mix. The French forward suffered a dead leg against Villarreal, and he has been out of contention for matchday squads over the next four weeks.
Kolo Muani has played for Eintracht Frankfurt, Paris Saint-Germain, and Juventus, demonstrating a chaotic threat that can create trouble for teams at the highest level, as well as infamously missing a late chance in the World Cup final for France against Argentina. Frank hopes that he will get back to his best.
“I think it's very important to have him fit and available. I think he looks better and better. I think it's also fair to say that he has trained two weeks with the team and when he came on the 1st of September - time flies! - he still needed a bit to go up to the higher level.
“But it's not to say that he can't be involved tomorrow and maybe can play minutes. But I think it's fair to say that he needs a little bit of time to get up to a full level.
“The World Cup is far away, in general. I understand that the players are thinking about it. I haven't spoken to him about it, if I'm honest, because I think for any player to want to be involved in the World Cup, you need to play. And for whatever reason, he hasn't been able to do it yet.
“What I'm focusing on is to make sure that he is in a good place. Try to get him into his best possible performance level. And when he is in that best possible performance level, he'll hopefully do very well for us, and then the rest will take care of itself.”