Sessegnon, Lo Celso return to training, but won’t be fit for Watford

If you’d like, say they’re “90%.” The Evening Standard is confirming today that two of Tottenham Hotspur’s newest signings, Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso, have returned to full training with the squad during the international break.

That’s the good news! The bad news is that neither will be fit enough to feature on Saturday in Spurs’ match against bottom-of-the-table Watford.

We were told about Lo Celso and Sessegnon’s return obliquely four a couple of days now. Daniel Levy himself actually spilled the beans as reported in the minutes of his meeting with the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST) a couple of days ago. Now, we have independent confirmation from Dan Kilpatrick, which is nice. Lo Celso seems to be recovering from his hip injury ahead of schedule, which is super nice — previously we had guessed that we might not see him in a match before Thanksgiving. Now, it looks as though he could be worked into the rotation much earlier than that.

Sessegnon has been a frustrating example of injury recovery. Close to making his Spurs debut in September, he reportedly had a setback which delayed his return by a number of weeks. It’s not his fault, obviously, but it has meant that his integration into the first team squad has been pushed back a number of times.

It’s too bad that neither of them will be ready for Watford — a home match against the team 20th in the league would normally be a good opportunity to give both of them some important substitute minutes. This also means they’re both unlikely to feature in next Tuesday’s Champions League home match against Red Star Belgrade, and with back to back trips to Liverpool (vs. the Reds followed by Everton) coming up it could be difficult to work them in those matches as well.

However, it’s still positive news. Pochettino clearly sees both Lo Celso and Sessegnon as the future of Tottenham Hotspur along with Tanguy Ndombele. The injury struggles has meant that for much of this season Spurs have basically been playing with last year’s squad... again. The sooner they can return, the sooner Spurs can continue the squad refresh that Pochettino has so desperately wanted.