Lewis Holtby: Wants to play regular first-team football

Tottenham midfielder Lewis Holtby could be set to depart White Hart Lane after admitting he needs to be playing regular first-team football.

Holtby has found regular first-team opportunities hard to come by since moving to Tottenham from Schalke during the January transfer window in 2012.

The 23-year-old has been linked with a return to Germany with Hamburg and found himself restricted to a place on the substitutes' bench for Tottenham’s Europa League second leg tie against AEL Limassol on Thursday.

"We're just going to have to see what happens in the next few days and weeks," Holtby told t-online.de.

"I'm a young player and I want to be playing all the time. That's very important for me, for my development and for my career."

Holtby spent the second half of last season on loan at Fulham where he was reunited with former Schalke manager Felix Magath.

But the midfielder, whose Tottenham contract expires in the summer of 2018, hopes he gets a chance to prove himself at White Hart Lane.

"Preferably, I would stay here with Tottenham of course and that's why I really hope that I get a chance," he added.