Team News vs Shakhtar Donetsk

Tonight, Tottenham will make the travel to Eastern Europe to play Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of their Uefa Cup round of 32 tie, but the squad is lacking some fifteen first team players. Harry Redknapp has already stated that the continental competition is not his priority, as the team prepare for a packed couple of weeks.

Those that it has always been known not to be eligible are Roman Pavlyuchenko, Vedran Corluka, Jermain Defoe, who are all cup-tied. Robbie Keane, Adel Taarabt and Ricardo Rocha are also unavailable, as they were not registered for the competition.

Redknapp is hopeful that captain Ledley King will have recovered from injury to lead the team out in the Carling Cup final on the first of March, but can not play tonight. Jamie O’Hara is also sidelined, whilst a long-term injury to Alan Hutton means he is still out.

Harry has made it abundantly clear that Premier League survival is the main priority in this hectic schedule, and therefore has left a number of first teamers in London ahead of the tie. Modric, Woodgate, Cudicini, Palacios, Bale and Lennon have all been wrapped in cotton wool. The boss also seems to be looking to involve a number of academy players tonight, with eight youth products making the trip to Ukraine. They take the form of Oscar Jansson, Adam Smith, Calum Butcher, John Bostock, Dean Parrett, Ryan Mason, Andros Townsend and Jon Obika. Out of those players, Bostock is the only one to have made his first team debut, coming in the Uefa Cup, whilst Dean Parrett has featured on the bench on one occassion.

Dean Parrett – summer signing for QPR

“Everyone tells me we’ve some fantastic prospects,” Redknapp began.

“Parrett’s been playing well in the youth team and it’s a good experience for them. If they are good enough they can stand on their own two feet and play at any level. We’ll find out.

“Lennon has a slight groin problem, I didn’t want to risk Modric or Palacios – we’ve got six games in such a short space of time and it makes it very difficult.

“The side is still full of experience – Gomes, Chimbonda, Dawson, Huddlestone, Gunter, Jenas, Zokora, Bentley and Giovani dos Santos.”