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Cristian Romero boost as Thomas Frank hatches Tottenham plans for north London derby at Arsenal

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Thomas Frank will already be plotting for his first north London derby and he will be raring to go in training as soon as his Tottenham players return from international duty.

The Dane and his non-international Spurs players, those who are not recovering from injury, are enjoying a rest in the early days of this week before returning to sessions at Hotspur Way. When those players return, Frank will look to get one or two involved in an U21s friendly at the training ground, with Radu Dragusin set to play after training with his Romania team-mates.

Then Frank will be sweating on the return of the international stars as all but one take on two matches during this fortnight. With the Premier League return taking place at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, both Tottenham and Arsenal have one extra day to prepare and recover after the players return.

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The first player back from international duty should be captain Cristian Romero because Argentina recently postponed next week's friendly against India, meaning he will only play once for his country on Friday in a friendly away against Angola.

The next set of players back at the Enfield training complex will be Xavi Simons and Micky van de Ven, with the Netherlands playing a home World Cup qualifier against Lithuania on Monday night, while Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel will play for France under-21s in their home European Championship qualifier against the Faroe Islands. If they all play then Tuesday will be a recovery day at Hotspur Way before returning to full training on Wednesday.

Then on Tuesday, six Tottenham players are in action across the globe, starting with Pape Matar Sarr in Senegal's friendly against Kenya in Turkey and Lucas Bergvall, following his concussion return, playing for Sweden at home in a World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.

Kevin Danso has a home World Cup qualifier with Austria against Bosnia-Herzegovina as does Brennan Johnson for Wales against North Macedonia and Pedro Porro with Spain against Turkey. As with Sarr playing closer to home, so is Richarlison as Brazil will face Tunisia in a friendly in France.

Rodrigo Bentancur however is playing for Uruguay away against the USA in a friendly later than evening at midnight UK time, which means the midfielder could be the latest player back to Hotspur Way, potentially on the Thursday after travelling back.

That leaves Frank with three days to work with his entire squad of available players before taking on Mikel Arteta's side across north London.

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