Dele Alli is “back on the grass” at Finch Farm according to Sean Dyche and is set to be gradually integrated into training with the rest of the first team over the course of this month.
The 27-year-old hasn’t played any competitive football since the later stages of his season-long loan at Besiktas last season when he sustained a hip injury that required surgery in the spring.
He was in the process of stepping up his rehabilitation in early September but suffered a set-back that has kept him from training fully again until very recently.
Sean Dyche says, however, that Dele has told him he is feeling good as he continues to work with the club’s medical staff and hinted that the fomer Tottenham forward could play again next month.
“He is back on the grass with the sports science/fitness side, going through football-related drills, but the actual freedom to join in with us is not there yet,” the manager was quoted as saying by The Guardian “Hopefully over the next week he will start blending in.
“He still has a bit to go because he has been out for a long time. He needs a game programme, but to get him back with us would be really pleasing for him because he has been so unlucky.
“The last time, 12-13 weeks ago when he was going to join in, he was so unlucky with the damage that was done. But the good news is that everything is settling down and he is feeling good. I saw him earlier and he said: ‘I’m feeling great.’
“His first thing will be to come in with us, but it will be light. He might do the warm-up and passing drills and then he will step away and continue his work with the sports science team.
“Then over a 10-day period it blends back into a point where you go: ‘Now you are joining in with us.’ That would not be the process if you have been out for 10 days, but with a longer-term injury it is about getting the body balance going again and training naturally.”
Dele’s contract with Everton is up next summer which presents a dilemma for the club given that he can only make six more appearances before a £10m payment is due to Spurs as part of the deal that brought him to Goodison Park from North London in January 2022.
Director of Football, Kevin Thelwell, has reportedly sounded out Tottenham about renegotiating the terms of that transfer deal but discussions have only been preliminary at this stage.