Emmanuel Adebayor: Left in reserve by Spurs

Record signing Roberto Soldado has become Spurs' number-one striker following his £26million move from Valencia and Jermain Defoe has been first-choice back-up.

Adebayor barely featured in pre-season and he has not played a competitive game after being given extended compassionate leave following the death of his brother in Togo.

Adebayor returned to London towards the end of last month, but he has gone back to Africa, for what Villas-Boas describes as "personal reasons".

The 29-year-old, who is one of Tottenham's top earners, will return on Monday and he will then train with the club's second string.

"At the moment, Ade is not with us, because we have granted him authorisation to stay up until Monday in his country for personal reasons, so he's not going to be involved against Norwich (on Saturday)," the Tottenham manager said.

"Up to when I find it appropriate, he will train with the development team."

Adebayor, who signed for Tottenham on a permanent basis last summer, does not appear to be in the club's first-team plans - for the present at least.

Schalke and Besiktas were interested in Adebayor during the summer transfer window and Villas-Boas confirmed he was happy to let the striker leave.

"There were opportunities, yes, for him to leave," the Spurs boss said. "But he was not interested in them, so he didn't.

"We had to think about the situation so we presented the player and his agents the situations we were presented with."

Villas-Boas, who sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for £85.3million on the penultimate day of the transfer window, has signed seven new players this summer.

The Tottenham manager revealed that one of those signings - Vlad Chiriches - will also not feature against Norwich on Saturday as Tottenham are yet to get a work permit for the Romanian defender.

Erik Lamela could make his full debut, Villas-Boas said, even though the Argentinian is yet to train with the Spurs squad following the lengthy international break.

Denmark international Christian Eriksen is also available to make his bow following his £11.5million transfer from Ajax.

Villas-Boas later confirmed winger Aaron Lennon is unavailable because of the foot injury which kept him out of the north London derby and the match against Swansea the week before.

"Lennon is taking a bit of time still recovering," Villas-Boas told Spurs TV Online. "There is pain in the bone. We will continue to assess him. There is not a lot we can do."