LONDON -- Toby Alderweireld will return to Tottenham Hotspur's bench for Wednesday's Champions League match against CSKA Moscow but Erik Lamela is unavailable after travelling to Argentina for personal reasons.
Alderweireld has missed Tottenham's last 11 matches with nerve damage in his right leg and the club has won just twice in that time, and crashed out of the Champions League.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino says the Belgium defender will return to the squad for the final group game at Wembley Stadium but Lamela -- who has been missing since October, first with an illness and then a hip problem -- has returned to Buenos Aires because his brother is unwell.
Ben Davies, who has had an ankle injury, is back in training but striker Vincent Janssen, who missed Saturday's 5-0 win over Swansea, was absent from training on Tuesday morning, also with an ankle problem.
"Toby will be involved in the squad tomorrow," Pochettino told a news conference on Tuesday. "We're happy. He is recovering well. Maybe on Thursday Ben Davies will be available to be selected again. His recovery is very good.
"Tomorrow, maybe Toby will be on the bench -- it's important for him to recover that feeling. Then we'll decide if he will be in the starting XI or bench against Manchester United [on Sunday]. It's about performance, it's about feeling, it's about how we assess him.
"Erik Lamela is still out -- it's important to send our support because he has a problem with his family in Argentina and travelled there last night.
"We want to send our big support of him and his family. He has a problem with his brother. We hope it's not too serious but it's an issue that he needed to go to Argentina for. But he's still out."
Spurs will qualify for the Europa League if they avoid defeat against the Russians in their final group match at Wembley. At his former club Southampton, Pochettino was criticial of the Europa League, while he played a significantly weakened team in last season's round-of-32 defeat to Borussia Dortmund.
However, he said Spurs could win the competition -- which would guarantee them a return to the Champions League -- and believes it is important to continue in Europe, not least because Spurs must get used to playing at Wembley ahead of using the national stadium as a temporary home next season.
"Our supporters never want us to lose the game. It's important to be in Europa League, for the club. It's a good opportunity to win a trophy. We need to be positive," Pochettino said.
"We have the chance to play more games at Wembley -- and next season we will play a lot of games there. It is a great chance to get experience at Wembley and make it our home.
"And then for the squad to be involved in different competitions. We have a lot of young players who need experience to play in Europe. And also, I think we cannot cope with maybe the pressure of Champions League and Premier League, but now is a good chance to show we have learned from experience in Champions League and try. Why can't Tottenham go far in that competition?
"You compete with very good clubs in Europe but it's true it's a shorter way to get to the Champions League. It is one possibility more."
Pochettino, however, admitted that the Europa League's Thursday to Sunday schedule was more difficult to deal with than the playing Wednesday to Saturday in the Champions League.
"Always it's harder to play Thursday and Sunday, it's psychological," he said. "We need to play on Sunday at 4 p.m., when our habit now is to play Saturday 3 p.m. in the Premier League -- it's the best time to play football. It's always difficult because Thursday travel, you're back maybe late on Friday morning, always it's difficult and tough."