Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho explains why young defender Joe Rodon is not in his Europa League squad.

Spurs have named their players who will compete in the latter stages of the competition.

But the likes of Rodon, Paulo Gazzaniga and Gedson Fernandes have all missed out.

Mourinho was asked about Rodon being in the squad by reporters and said: "We didn't [include him].

"[It was] a hard decision but a decision where we wanted to show respect for the group.

"We wanted to show respect to the people that started the competition.

"It would be very, very hard for the group to cope with one of the players who was involved to be out.

"We kept [Japhet] Tanganga [in January] in spite of good possibilities the kid had to go out on loan. We kept him because then [we have] Tanganga, Davinson Sanchez, [Eric] Dier [and Toby] Alderweireld [at centre-back]. We have to do it without Rodon.

"We believe that by the emotional impact it has less impact on a player who was not part of the squad to stay out until the end of the season than a player who was part of it, a player who played in the group stage, to get him and to change him. We decided to not go in that direction so it's Joe the player who is still out.

"Of course Gedson and Gazzaniga they left but they were not also in the list. So not one single spot that was open. It was just a decision between Joe or another one and we decided to give that stability to the group."