Rochdale vs Tottenham: Harry Kane could miss FA Cup clash but Lucas Moura may be handed full debut

Tottenham Hotspur will need to assess the fitness of Harry Kane before this weekend's FA Cup fifth-round clash with Rochdale, though January signing Lucas Moura could make his first start for the club against third-tier opposition at Spotland.

Spurs visit the northwest on Sunday (18 February) after a gruelling stretch of fixtures that has seen them face Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal in the Premier League and be taken to a fourth-round replay by plucky Newport County in addition to travelling to Turin for the first leg of their Champions League last-16 meeting with Serie A giants Juventus.

Mauricio Pochettino is unsurprisingly planning to make major changes to his team against a Rochdale side that sit rock bottom of League One but did shock Championship outfit Millwall at the second attempt last week, though the Spurs' boss claims he has yet to decide his exact starting XI.

Influential striker Kane, who has scored nine goals in his last eight appearances across all competitions including the first in an impressive fightback against Juve on Tuesday, was rested for the Newport replay after starting both previous FA Cup ties and it remains to be seen what role he will play this time around.

"He twisted his ankle, he received some knocks [against Juventus]," Pochettino admitted at his pre-match press conference, per football.london. "We need to assess tomorrow if he's fit. Maybe he has the possibility to start, if not 100 per cent and there's not the possibility to play 90 minutes, then to be on the bench, or if we see that he's not capable of half an hour or 20 minutes then to stay here like with all the players who we did the same."

A potential absence for Kane may well lead to another opportunity for Fernando Llorente, for whom the manager believes this game could provide "another possibility to show his quality" and receive more luck than in the second meeting with Newport, in which he missed a couple of excellent chances to add to his meagre tally in a Spurs shirt.

Lucas, a £23m ($32.3m) deadline day arrival from Paris Saint-Germain, remained an unused substitute during last weekend's north London derby victory over Arsenal and was subsequently handed a one-minute debut off the bench in northern Italy. The Brazilian forward could now be in line to make his first start for his new employers at Rochdale.

"Yes, we're thinking of maybe giving him the possibility to start the game," Pochettino said. "We're thinking, it's in our head. He's working very hard, we're pushing him. Yes, we need to assess him tomorrow and see how we can do. But we are so happy with him and the way that he is working. Maybe he has the possibility."

The Tottenham boss also apologised if his previous comments regarding Rochdale's much-maligned pitch - which has since been relaid - were taken in the "wrong way" by chairman Chris Dunphy and insisted that there were never any discussions about switching the tie to Spurs' temporary Wembley home.