Conte admits he isn’t sure if ‘important’ Tottenham player will play against Manchester United

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Antonio Conte has praised Dejan Kulusevski but isn’t sure whether he will return for Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester United.

Tottenham beat Everton 2-0 on Saturday evening with Harry Kane’s penalty a deflected Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg strike giving Spurs the win.

However, it wasn’t all good new for Tottenham as Richarlison suffered what looked like a nasty injury.

The Brazilian was taken off with a calf problem and it’s unclear just how long he will be on the sidelines ahead of the World Cup.

Antonio Conte has praised Dejan Kulusevski

This injury blow particularly hurts Tottenham given that Dejan Kulusevski is out of action too.

The Swede returned from the international break last month with a hamstring injury having played in both of Sweden’s games.

Kulusevski, 22, hasn’t played for Tottenham since and his absence has been heavily felt.

Tottenham have lacked real guile and creativity in the final third without Kulusevski and his return can’t come soon enough.

Kulusevski did return to training at Hotspur Way last week but he still wasn’t included in games against Eintracht Frankfurt and Everton.

There are hopes that Kulusevski will be back very soon but Tottenham boss Conte has played down an immediate comeback.

Conte has told Football London that Kulusevski is ‘working’ on his return to action but doesn’t think he will be ready to face Manchester United on Wednesday.

Conte noted that he doesn’t want to go too quickly with Kulusevski and risk a repeat injury so Tottenham will be patient over the winger, who Conte called an ‘important player’.

“Kulusevski is working,” said Conte. “We are going day by day with him. I don’t know about the game against Manchester United, the doctors are working with him.”

“It’s the same injury [hamstring]. The medical department are working to recover him but at the same time there are situations that you have to go a bit slowly and not accelerate the process. Sometimes if you do that you worsen the situation. We hope to have him in the squad very soon. Deki is an important player for us and Richy is an important player for us,” he added.

With Richarlison and Kulusevski unlikely to face United, Conte faces some tricky decisions.

Conte could bring in Lucas Moura, Bryan Gil or Ivan Perisic as a winger and stick to the 3-4-3 system, or revert to 3-5-2 and bring in Yves Bissouma.

It may be better to leave the few attacking options on the bench to change the game and Conte will be encouraged by the 3-5-2 after beating Brighton and Hove Albion earlier this month.