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How long is Harry Kane out for?

"I don't know yet, maybe later today we have news but if you ask me just my feeling – good news or bad news – I am more on bad news than good news, that's my feeling.

"What the player felt, Harry Kane leaving a match, the way he did it, he didn't think twice, it didn't take him two seconds to realise the severity of the situation, some opinions from the medical department before the test results.

"I don't think we're going to have good news. But the reason we're here is because of the beautiful FA Cup and in relation to that we can say that no Middlesbrough for Harry Kane."

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Do you fear a grade two tear of the hamstring as opposed to a grade one?

"I'm not great on grades. I'm great on experience and feelings, and again I'm not expecting very good news.

"I think we're going to lose him for some period and because I am totally convinced of that I can anticipate that I don't want to here with you crying in every press conference now. Everybody knows who he is, what he is, what he means for the team, the fans, the club.

"His quality, the routines that the team has playing with him, every minute of every game he doesn't play we miss, so every match that he doesn't play we're going to miss him. But I don't want to be crying here all the time, I want to focus now on the players that are available.

"About Sonny I just cried once, for the three matches he was not playing I avoided speaking about Son. Now Son is back I prefer to speak about Son than Harry."

Do you feel you have enough cover in your squad?

"We have what we have. That's the squad that started preseason, that's the squad we have for the season.

"Again everybody knows again the importance of Harry in the squad. I think irreplaceable, if you think about one player by one player, I think he's irreplaceable. But we have to try solutions with the players we have."

Does this have an impact on your transfer plans for the month? Would you like to bring in a striker as a back-up?

"Again, I come to work with the players that are available and I'm not thinking about the market. I think my job is to do what I did today, what I'm going to do tomorrow, which is to work with a small group of players.

"The players playing are permanently recovering but recovering is not enough. If you look at the number of injuries to Premier League players in the past two weeks, you realise recovering is not enough. The most protected players belong to the squads with so many solutions that there is space for rotation. I don't want to think about it.

"Of course the market is open until the end of January. Everybody in the club wants to give the teams the best conditions but at the same time the world doesn't end at the end of this season.

"We have a few months until the end of the season to fight for results obviously but nothing ends at the end of the season. The end of the season is just the end of a first period.

"Yesterday I was watching the Liverpool match and I was watching the best team in the world at the moment. Then I Googled it just to confirm, Jurgen arrived in October 2015. 2016, 17, 18, 19 and now 20. Eight transfer windows, lots of players leaving, lots of players coming and even more important than that, time for him to put his philosophy, his training methods, his fingerprint.

"Beautiful results as a consequence of fantastic work, step-by-step, phase-by-phase. In the first season they finished sixth or something like that and four years later they are not just the world champions, they are the best team in the world in this moment. No panic, calm.

"I have experience, the club has lots of experience, Mr Levy has lots of experiences. Calm doesn't mean we don't want to win the next match. The next match we always want to win."

(Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)

How far away are Tottenham from Liverpool's level?

"I don't want to compare to Liverpool. I don't want to do that. That is not the objective of my comment. It was just to say, calm.

"One thing is team and squads that are basically at the end of a cycle, some others are in transformation from one cycle to another one, some others are just in the beginning of an era with maximum potential and these are different scenarios. We have to be calm and we have the right people to be calm with the right experience."

How is Tanguy Ndombele and what have you said to him about his injuries and what he can give to the team?

"In this moment he can't give anything because he is injured. What he can give is what he gave against Norwich which was clearly a very, very good performance. Very, very good which showed clearly his potential and what he can give to the team and how much the team misses him when he is not available. That is what he can give us. By being injured we have just to wait.

"Since the beginning of the season he is having problems. When I arrived he was injured and now six or seven weeks after I arrived he is injured again.

"So no continuity in his development, the talent is obviously there but no consistency. When a player comes from another country until he adapts to what the Premier League is he needs consistency, he needs minutes, he needs to be playing. Unfortunately he is not being able to do that."

Can you see any situation where Christian Eriksen gets sold in the January window?

"I don't know and I am being honest. You know the situation, in this moment he can agree with any club for the end of the season. That is one option.

"Another option is a club and himself want to do a deal in January, but in that situation our club is in control. We have the control of the situation. Another possibility is he stays. In this moment he is here, he is our player.

"I can say Harry Kane and Ndombele will not be at Middlesbrough, I can say Christian Eriksen will be at Middlesbrough."

Can Troy Parrott replace Harry Kane or is it too soon?

"I think too soon. I think one thing is potential and another thing is conditions to express potential and I think he needs time. Having minutes, being involved is one thing.

"Another thing is what you call the direct replacement. To be that he needs to work. There are many different processes of a player to develop in some cases the loans are very good. You have the example of Harry Kane or Tammy Abraham.

"In other cases no need of a loan because the development at the parent club is more natural. The next step for him is to sign a new contract at the club long-term and then it is for everyone to decide what is the best for is development. In this club we care about our players. It is also to find the best pathway to develop."

(Image: IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images)

Do you think he has an opportunity against Boro to play?

"It's possible, it's possible."

Just to clarify, for some players it's a loan or for some it's to stay at their parent club, do you have an idea of which one of those would suit Troy?

"He's 17 years old. I don't think at the age of 17 it's good for you to go on loan to a Championship club or to go abroad to another country. My feeling is one thing is when you are 20 if you need that step when you are 19/20, another thing is when you are 17.

"When you are 17 you are a baby. 17 you just have to be in your father club where you feel at home, where you are at home, where you train and develop with the first team. Where some minutes will arrive like it happened against Burnley, and step by step but not in a situation where we see Harry Kane is injured and Parrott is the man to resolve our problems."

Will other young players be involved at Boro like Tanganga and Skipp?

"Yeah. Everybody's going to be involved. If you go to our squad and no Rose, no Davies, no Lloris, no Kane. I don't know if Eric Dier will be ready but he is still to come back.

"When you say no, no, no, no, no you have to say Skipp, Tanganga, Parrott, the young boys in. That's for sure, but sometimes when you say young guys, people that are not playing a lot and you connect FA Cup not important, FA Cup the right space to give opportunities to players that's not the case.

"FA Cup very important, by the history of the club, by the connection, by the memories, by what it means for everyone at the club, every fan, the FA Cup is very important.

"So these young players coming in for the match at MIddlesbrough doesn't mean the FA Cup is not important for us. The FA Cup is important for us, we are going to play every minute of the FA Cup with the maximum potential that we have available, and if somebody knocks us out of the competition I want that to happen in the maximum potential of our effort, commitment because FA Cup is a very important competition."

How close is the team to its physical limits at the moment?

"I don't want to give headlines. I want to try to play nice and easy, so I don't want to give headlines. I don't want to speak about the connection between so many injuries in the Premier League and the calendar, but it's obvious that you look to some of our players and of course there is fatigue.

"But the squad is not big, some players are injured then we had also three players suspended in the middle match, which I call the Boxing Day, the middle match, in between Christmas and new year.

"Now we recover some players but we lose others. So of course there is fatigue but of course they are professionals, we have commitments and of course we don't want to say this match is not important, this competition is not important.

"So we have to go again. To Middlesbrough, are the kids going to be involved? Of course they are going to be involved but they are not going to be involved to rest somebody; they are going to be involved because this is the moment. So that's it."

(Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

The Champions League was what made it so memorable for Spurs last season, do you hope the FA Cup can do something similar this season?

"We have to try. Again, I repeat the FA Cup for me is very important. When I say for me I say for Jose, for me as Tottenham head coach and as a representative of the Tottenham supporters as that's what I am at the moment.

"In every position I think the FA Cup is very, very important. The FA Cup is the only competition when where you start you have the same chance of winning as everyone else. Of course we are miles away from the Wembley semi-finals or final, but we go to this first match and we have to go with everything we have.

"With the passion the FA Cup demands, the passion the fans demand and the history of the club and connection with the FA Cup. I think it is very important to give everything as this is what the players will do."

Paulo Dybala was someone the club were interested in during the summer, is there anything you can say about him or whether the club will go in for him?

"I cannot tell you anything about Dybala. I just can't. If something happened is to happen or why it didn't happen I don't know. That was pre-season."

Has there been any progress on a new deal for Japhet Tanganga as his deal is running out soon?

"I think the club is always interested in these young players. I cannot tell you specifically if it will happen next week or next month, I am not in conditions to tell you that. I am in conditions to tell you that the club is always thinking about a project for the young players and these young players who are with the first team now.

"Going on loan, don't going, staying, the club is always worried about them, so I presume that Tanganga will be a player to sign a new contract yes."

Does Jack Clarke come into your thinking this weekend as his loan spell at Leeds has finished?

"I know it's finished but the structure is looking for another loan where he can play. In this half season he was not playing much and the objective of a loan is for the players to play.

"A loan without minutes is frustration loan. One is enough so the next one we must be sure is a club and a manager that really wants him to play."

Can I have your thoughts on Middlesbrough as they've improved and Spurs go into the game with their form not as good as it has been?

"Easy draw for somebody that has just arrived in England, just landed in Stansted and feel that can be easy. For some who is here like me for a long time, and for like all of you I presume, there is no easy draws.

"The beautiful cup is beautiful also because of the surprise, also because of the way teams with less potential look to the other ones. When I look to the Championship in this moment I don't see the Championship of 2004 when I came to England for the first time.

"The difference between Championship teams and Premier League teams are very, very short. You can see when they are promoted there is no more the team that cannot win a match in the Premier League.

"The teams are basically the same. For me to go to Norwich, Southampton or Middlesbrough, I don't feel any difference on that. They are in a very good run - four wins in a row, one goal conceded - I think it will obviously be a very difficult match."