Tottenham injury news: Mousa Dembele could feature for Belgium against Spain after calf problems

Tottenham midfielder Mousa Dembele will be absent from the Belgium side facing Italy in Brussels on 13 November, but any lingering fears that he might be set for a sustained spell on the sidelines have been allayed by head coach Marc Wilmots.

The Belgian boss revealed the player could be ready to feature for his country in their fixture against Spain next week. The 28-year-old has been in impressive form for his club of late, but received a kick to the calf during a training session earlier this week.

While Belgium have already booked their place at Euro 2016 thanks to a strong qualifying campaign that saw them top Group B ahead of Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina, their numbers for a testing friendly double-header have been thinned due to fitness concerns.

Manchester United substitute Marouane Fellaini withdrew from the squad on Monday after suffering an injury before his club's 2-0 victory over West Brom last weekend. Romelu Lukaku's younger brother, Jordan, has also been forced to pull out.

Captain Vincent Kompany, who found himself at the centre of a club versus country row during the previous international break when he played 57 minutes of a qualifier against Israel despite having missed five games for Manchester City through injury, will miss both encounters with a recurrence of a calf problem.

2014 World Cup quarter-finalists Belgium are not short of depth, as evidenced by their position atop the Fifa world rankings, although Wilmots would certainly be glad to have a player of Dembele's standing available to face the reigning European champions.

"We work with him [Dembele] on an individual program to get him ready for the game against Spain," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "Because Dembele was insecure, I called in an extra midfielder in [Steven] Defour."

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino will be relieved that Dembele's latest injury is not likely to keep him out of action for long. Questions have frequently been asked over the talented player's best position before and after he moved to White Hart Lane from Fulham in August 2012, but this season he has proven his quality in a more advanced role that seems ideally suited to his wonderful technical ability.

Dembele, who missed all of September after hurting his foot in the goalless draw against Everton and has been linked with a possible January move to Napoli in recent weeks, scored with a fine individual effort during in-form Spurs' comfortable 3-1 win over Aston Villa earlier this month and will remain pivotal to their hopes of finishing in the top four this season.

Pochettino's side have not lost a top-flight fixture since the first day of the 2015/16 campaign and welcome rivals West Ham United to north London directly after the international break.