Hoddle missing key men

Glenn Hoddle will be without a number of first-team players for Sunday's friendly with Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon at White Hart Lane.

The most notable absentee will be new £4million signing Freddie Kanoute who suffered a groin injury during his first training session with the club this week.

Kanoute now believes he will be out of action for two weeks and says he will miss the opening game of the season at Birmingham.

But Hoddle has more immediate worries with Christian Ziege and Ledley King still out. Dean Richards returned to training this week after recovering from an achilles complaint and he may be in contention.

Hoddle is also sweating on the fitness of Darren Anderton who injured his hamstring against PSV last weekend. Simon Davies, however, has recovered from the calf knock he picked up in the same game.

Midfielder Jonathan Blondel remains sidelined with the broken finger he sustained in the friendly with Oxford but hopes to have the pin removed so he can start gym work.

He said: "It's better now, I can jog and maybe next week I can play with the ball. I hope the doctor will remove it (the pin) so I can train in the gym."

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest are reported to be interested in signing former Spurs' striker Sergei Rebrov.