Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou is delighted to be getting first team stars back fit.

The North London club have been boosted by the return of James Maddison.

The attacking midfielder was a revelation for the team since signing in the summer, prior to going down with an ankle injury.

Postecoglou told reporters: “It's great to have Madders back and Micky [van de Ven] and [Cristian] Romero are back and have had good training weeks. It just helps our ability to prepare for the challenges ahead.

"We have been through a difficult period. We have still got some absentees but I think that even with those, our performances have been at a good level and the players were really embracing what we are trying to do. We have set ourselves up now for a strong finish to the league season and a good cup run."

He went on to say about Maddison: "Specifically, for him, the creative part there aren't too many in the league that are like him and we had to sort of cover that absence in different ways. [Dejan] Kulusevksi played in there, Gio [Lo Celso] stepped in there and scored some goals for us. Our front three have really picked up and have got goals from set-pieces.

"The beauty of that is that when Madders comes back in, it's not just reliant on him, whereas at the start of the season we were maybe a little bit more reliant on him. We found out through this period that we don't have to be, but having him in there certainly adds to that as well."