Pienaar and Gallas set for starts in Russia

Tottenham duo Steven Pienaar and William Gallas look set to make their first starts of the season against Rubin Kazan on Thursday night.

The duo are yet to make a competitive appearance for the club this season having been ruled out with respective groin and calf problems.

However, regular Europa league starter Giovani Dos Santos (calf) hasn’t made the trip to Russia and joins Michael Dawson (achilles), Vedran Corluka (foot), Danny Rose (ankle), Tom Huddlestone (ankle) and Niko Kranjcar (thigh) on the sidelines.

Regular starters Luka Modric, Scott Parker and Gareth Bale have also been left at home while Brad Friedel and Rafael Van der Vaart are both ineligible for the competition.

A number of senior players, including Carlo Cudicini, Jake Livermore, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Jermain Defoe, Sebastien Bassong and Heurelho Gomes, are all included the match day squad leaving Kevin Bond and Joe Jordan with a choice of experience and youth to pick from.

Potential starting XI:

Cudicini; Walker, Gallas, Bassong, Townsend; Falque, Carroll, Sandro, Pienaar; Defoe, Pavlyuchenko