Dejan Kulusevski will travel with Tottenham to Manchester United on Saturday but he is only set to offer support along with injured defender Pedro Porro.
Swedish attacker Kulusevski has not played competitively for more than 500 days after multiple setbacks following a serious patella injury in his right knee at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.
There is finally light at the end of the tunnel for Kulusevski, who stepped up his recovery during the international break after he played in an 11-v-11 match against Spurs' academy, and boss Roberto De Zerbi acknowledged a long-awaited return is close.
"He is working well, tomorrow he comes with us, also Porro [for support]. I want all players tomorrow, tonight and tomorrow," De Zerbi said.
"I think he is an example for everyone, Dejan Kulusevski. Forget the player, but the example of how he reacted to the injury, the reaction to being unlucky, the character he showed this time, was an example, a reference for everyone."
Dejan Kulusevski has been sidelined with injury for nearly two years. Marc Atkins/Getty Images Quizzed on when he might play, De Zerbi admitted: "I don't know, it's not just my responsibility. We are working together with the medical staff. They are working very well with him, they have done special work. We have to analyse week by week."
De Zerbi will have James Maddison available at Manchester United, but the playmaker has encountered more fitness struggles over the past week.
Maddison has also not started for Tottenham in 17 months after back-to-back knee injuries and had to sit out a number of training sessions before the trip to Old Trafford.
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"He is available but he lost three to four days in the beginning of this week and the end of the last week," De Zerbi said.
"He is a good guy, he suffered to stay not on the pitch, to have the injury. Now it was not a big injury. Tomorrow he can play, but the Premier League is tough.
"Physically it is a very strong competition and you have to be in the right physical condition to compete, to run, to fight. He is a No. 10, a different player, but I think he is working well and this is the way.
"The way is to complete three, four, five weeks in a row without problems, without feeling pain, without feeling problems. And then he is a normal player, he has nothing special, bad."