Andre Villas-Boas has warned Emmanuel Adebyaor he will need to be "more patient" as he resumes his bid to force his way into the Tottenham manager's starting XI.
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Adebayor missed Wednesday's Capital One Cup exit at the hands of Norwich due to illness and even though he is back in contention for Wigan's trip to White Hart Lane this weekend, Villas-Boas has hinted that his spell warming the substitutes' bench is set to continue.
"Ade has returned to training and he will be available for the Wigan game," Villas-Boas confirmed. "The trouble has been that he has not played so much this season, mainly because of injury. He missed six games for a period and then two more recently.
"Whenever he came on he did well and he wants to be part of the team, but Jermain Defoe is doing well. In nine Premier League games, he has five goals. This is the kind of goalscoring ability that you want for your team.
"Ade is there too, but has to be more patient at the moment. I'm sure he can have a good run in the team after these setbacks."
Meanwhile, Villas-Boas has insisted his young defender Steven Caulker is ready to play in the Premier League, despite the Serbian police charging him after the brawl at the end of the England Under-21s' Euro 2013 play-off last month.
"We just don't have enough information about this situation in Serbia," Villas-Boas said. "It's not really for the club to give a further position regarding what we think about the situation. I am not worried about the consequences of what can happen.
"I'm extremely happy with him. He is 20-years-old and doing extremely well, coping with the best strikers in the world, Torres, Rooney, Van Persie.
"He's done it in the past during his time at Swansea, but there is more pressure on results now. All I can say is I believe Steven is ready to play and there will be no problem if he is picked at the weekend. I think he can have a bright future."
Villas-Boas also revealed that Belgian midfielder Moussa Dembele is still struggling to recover from the injury he picked up while on international duty last month, but he offered a more positive update on Scott Parker's return date.
"There has been a slight improvement with Parker," he added of the midfielder who has yet to feature this season. "We have pushed him a little more on the treadmill and we have to give him time to make sure he recovers 100%. Hopefully we will have him back in a few weeks."
