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Antonio Conte hopes ‘Del Boy’ stops Spurs being plonkers after surprise visit from Italy legend Alessandro Del Piero
HARRY KANE hopes to make plonkers of NS Mura - after receiving a few words of advice from Del Boy.
The Tottenham striker and his team-mates travel to Slovenia for their penultimate Europa Conference League group clash.
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It might seem like a bit of an anti-climax for North Londoners after their meeting with European football royalty on Tuesday.
Italy and Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero paid a surprise visit to Tottenham’s Enfield training HQ.
Spurs boss Antonio Conte said: “He was in London as a guest for Sky for the Chelsea vs Juventus game.
“It was good to see him. We played together, I also coached him and we won a lot in our career. It was good to see him after a long time.
“It was good for Harry to see Alessandro and it was the same for Alessandro to see him.
“Did he have some advice for him? Yes they are two world-class strikers.
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“Alessandro was cheered by all the players and it was good for us.”
Kane is set to lead the line for Spurs again tonight, despite Conte’s vow to make several changes to his team.
The Italian said yesterday: “All the players available will come with us. They must be ready to play against Mura.
“I said on Sunday that I need to make rotation because there are players that are a bit tired because they have played many games with the national team and also we worked a lot in the last two weeks.
"There are other players that need game time.
“For us this competition is important. We want to take this fixture seriously and we want to go through to the next step.
“For sure I will make the rotation because personally I need to know much better the players because there are players I need to see during a game and a competition.”
But Conte fears Cristian Romero’s injury is more serious than first thought.
On-loan Atalanta defender Romero missed the 2-1 win over Leeds on Sunday after hurting his hamstring while playing for Argentina during the international break.
He is due to have another scan in the coming days to discover the full extent of the problem.
But Conte said: “Honestly, I think his injury is serious. But we have to wait.
“I don't know now the time he needs to recover. Surely his injury is more serious than Giovani Lo Celso or Dane Scarlett’s.
“We have to wait for the next scan and then the doctor can give more information on the dates for his recovery.”
Lo Celso was also injured playing for Argentina while strike prospect Scarlett picked up an ankle knock in training.
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But Ryan Sessegnon is set to make his first start since August after recovering from hamstring trouble.
And he admits he saw a psychologist to help him overcome his difficult start at the club.
Sessegnon was one of the most sought-after youngsters in Europe when he joined Spurs in August, 2019 from Fulham for £25million, but injuries and several changes of manager have limited his appearances to just 15.
He revealed: “It has been very tough. People very close to me know how much it affected me.
“But the good people around me helped, family and friends.
“And I did get a little help one-on-one from someone which was very good for me. The psychology side of it.
“I hope this will kick-start my career at Tottenham.
“The formation the new manager plays is perfect for me. To play on that left wing-back position is probably where I feel most comfortable playing and it suits me as well.
“That is the position I started at Fulham as everyone knew I was a left-back. And then got pushed farther forward so when you combine the two it is perfect.”
Conte added: “Ryan in my opinion has great potential.
“We have seen in the past he suffered a lot of injuries. Now we're trying to work in the right way with him.
“With this type of player, it's very important during training to push your engine to a high level and have good training sessions. In this way you're trained during the game to bring high intensity and level of performance.
“We've been working with him for the past two weeks, now he's ready to start the game.
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"And I can't wait to see his performance because he's a talented player, very young with great space for improvement.
“Now it's important to give him regularity to try to avoid injury and give him the chance to be available for every game.”
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