Villas-Boas impressed by Huddlestone

Andre Villas-Boas has praised Tom Huddlestone’s mentality after the midfielder forced his way back into Tottenham’s first-team squad.

The three-time England international missed the majority of last season with an ankle injury, prompting the Portuguese to sanction a loan move to Stoke City in the summer – only for Huddlestone to fail the medical.

And Villa-Boas has been impressed by the 25-year-old’s determination to succeed at White Hart Lane.

“Tom is a good story to tell, bearing in mind the injury he had and the amount of time he has had out. It is so good to see him play four games in 10 days,” the Spurs boss said.

“Hopefully we can bring him back to the level that he was at and the expectation of the talent that he can be. He has been extremely good and his passing ability is tremendous.”

Huddlestone has been afforded the opportunity to impress following an injury to summer signing Mousa Dembele and the continued absence of Scott Parker and has now featured four times for Spurs in the past 10 days.

“The way he has settled in the team and assumed responsibility, for a player who was out for so much time and to play this amount of games in such a short time, is all credit to him,” Villas-Boas said.

“In the summer we made that possibility for him to go to Stoke to give him more time to be back to that match fitness.

“Fortunately for him things have worked out and he has battled his way into the team.”