Tottenham hopeful of early Danny Rose return from knee injury

The England left-back's injury is not thought to be as bad as first feared after a positive scan on Monday

Danny Rose missed Saturday's 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough with the injury (Getty)

Tottenham are cautiously optimistic that Danny Rose will be back by the end of February.

The England left-back missed Saturday’s 1-0 win over Middlesbrough with a knee injury which he picked up during last Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at Sunderland.

Tottenham were initially worried that Rose, who has in exceptional form this season, could be out for up to two months.

But Rose saw a specialist on Monday and the results showed that he should be able to return to training within roughly two weeks. The Premier League game against Everton on 5 March has been pencilled in for Rose’s return to the first team.

Before then Rose will miss Saturday’s trip to Liverpool, the FA Cup fifth round trip to Fulham the following Sunday and both legs of the Europa League last-32 clash with Belgian side KAA Gent.

He will also likely miss the Premier League games with Stoke City on 26 February, but that ought to be the end of his absence.

Rose’s brilliant form this season persuaded Mauricio Pochettino to switch to a 3-5-2 system that made the most of his attacking threat and that of Kyle Walker on the opposite side.

Against Middlesbrough last Saturday he went back to a 4-2-3-1 with Ben Davies at left-back instead of Rose.

With Jan Vertonghen out for all of February and some of March too with an ankle ligament injury, Pochettino is without two of his first-choice defenders, making it very difficult for him to return to the wing-back system that has helped Spurs to play their best football this season.