LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino turned down the chance to liken Erik Lamela to "a new signing" on the eve of the winger's return to action, but the Tottenham manager does not want a new player. He wants the old Lamela.

The Argentine has not played for 13 months but is back in the Spurs squad for Tuesday's match at Leicester City, and Pochettino has not forgotten what he can bring to the team.

"He's not a new player, eh? He's been here for four and a half years," Pochettino said. "We miss his energy, his energy is massive. You can feel when he is on the pitch he is always available to run, to press. And when he has the ball, he has the capacity to beat opponents. We miss him because he is a completely different option to what we have up front."

Lamela last played in a League Cup defeat to Liverpool in October 2016, in a team including five players who are no longer at Tottenham. Since that night, chronic hip problems left him seeking solace at his former club Roma, where he returned for treatment in January, but only double hip surgery in the spring set him on the road to recovery. It has not been easy for the 25-year-old, who, in the midst of his injury, was forced to return to Buenos Aires in December after his brother was injured in an accident.

"He was very down," Pochettino said. "He's still so young but it was a massive problem for him. But you know how he is and he loves to play football and staying away for a long time was difficult for him.

"You see his history and in four and a half years [at Tottenham] he was injured for almost two years. If you remember the first season before we arrived he had a back injury."