Mourinho expects 'champion' Lloris back in February

Jose Mourinho expects Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris could be available for selection in February.

The France captain was ruled out for the rest of 2019 when he sustained a dislocated elbow and ligament damage in a fall during a Premier League game against Brighton and Hove Albion in early October.

Paulo Gazzaniga has proven an able deputy for Lloris, with Mourinho describing the goalkeeper as having "magic hands" after a key late stop in Spurs' 2-1 win at Wolves last weekend.

But Lloris is on the comeback trail and, speaking ahead of Sunday's home league game against old club Chelsea, Mourinho offered an update on the 32-year-old.

"He's a champion. Not just a champion of the world but also a champion as a professional," Mourinho said of Lloris.

"He works very, very hard, very brave, accelerates processes, but there are limits of that acceleration of process with such an important injury. But he's doing amazingly well.

"He's working with a different group of people, since the physios, until the goalkeeping coaches, working really, really hard.

"It's difficult to set up a date, I would say February. I probably would not be far from it and February goes from the 1st to the 29th this year [2020]."

Lloris would, therefore, be in line to return for France in time to help Didier Deschamps' World Cup winners attempt to follow that success at the European Championships.