Tottenham Hotspur Team News: Defoe Out For Three Weeks

Andre Villas-Boas has confirmed that Tottenham Hotspur will be without leading scorer Jermain Defoe for at least three weeks while he recovers from an ankle injury he suffered during the first half of Tottenham's victory over West Bromwich Albion.

Fortunately, Villas-Boas is confident that Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor will return from international duty at the African Cup of Nations by Friday and be able to be selected for the Newcastle match. The team was hopeful that Adebayor would be back in training today, but there's no word as to whether or not that actually happened, following some drama with the Togo national team.

One piece of good news coming out of King's Landing (Bulls Cross, whatever) is that Younes Kaboul will begin training with the Tottenham first team on Monday. The French defender has not played since suffering a knee injury in the opening fixture of the season. Villas-Boas believes that Kaboul will take at least two or three weeks to get back up to speed. Reading in to that, he could be available as a substitute as early as the West Ham match on February 25th, but it's probably unlikely that he'll be at full-speed until after the Arsenal fixture.