Tottenham Hotspur will be without a further three first-team stars when they face Stade Rennes in the UEFA Europa Conference League later this evening...

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Speaking in his pre-game press conference, Spurs boss Nuno Santo revealed that Eric Dier, Heung-min Son and Ryan Sessegnon have not travelled to France.

"I can tell you the players that did not travel. Son did not travel, Dier did not travel and Sessegnon did not travel. That's the team news," he told reporters, via football.london.

According to the club's official website, the trio have remained in north London to continue their rehabilitation.

Dier was forced off early during Saturday's disappointing defeat to Crystal Palace with a dead leg, whilst Sessegnon and Son returned from the international break carrying knocks and missed the trip to Selhurst Park.

Neither will feature against Rennes.

Hammer blow

This will be yet another annoying setback for the Portuguese head coach as he was already without a number of usual first-team players, and he will want to see a reaction from the weekend's first league defeat.

South American trio Giovani Lo Celso, Davinson Sanchez and Cristian Romero, who would all normally be in contention for this fixture are still unavailable following the international break as they are in Croatia until the weekend.

So it leaves Nuno with a threadbare squad with very little options to choose from, particularly in defence, where it's likely to be the inexperienced duo of Japhet Tanganga and Joe Rodon, neither of whom have played as much as Dier, Sanchez and Romero in Europe.

Similarly, Spurs struggled immensely in the absence of Son, recording just two shots against Palace, who themselves racked up 18 attempts.

The South Korean attacker is currently their top goalscorer so far this season, so his presence will be sorely missed once again and without Sessegnon to replace him, it'll be down to Bryan Gil, Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn for that left-sided role, the latter of which has only just returned from his own injury troubles.

Nuno will know the pressure he's under to deliver in this inaugural competition too, as they are among the favourites to win it and the north London outfit are still without a piece of silverware since 2008.

His chances of securing a positive result are seriously dented by this latest setback. To be without as many as six potential starters is massively worrying for any manager.

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