Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen omitted from Denmark Olympic squad

Christian Eriksen has been left out of Denmark's squad for the football competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in another boost for Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the new season. The 24-year-old could have been selected as one of three over-23 players in Niels Frederiksen's roster, but has not been included after the Danish Football Association consulted clubs across the continent over the availability of their charges.

Sky Sports understood that Eriksen was under consideration for inclusion, however Denmark have only been able to negotiate the release of three English-based players for the 16-team tournament, which runs from 4 August to 20 August. Lasse Vibe of Brentford, Birmingham City's Nicolari Brock-Madsen and Fulham's Lasse Vigen Christensen have been called up as part of the 18-man squad.

Eriksen becomes the fourth player that Tottenham have successfully prevented playing in Rio and will therefore have a full squad available for the start of the campaign, injury permitting. Argentina winger Erik Lamela, Algeria midfielder Nabil Bentaleb and South Korea's Heung-son Min will also have a watching brief as their countries go for gold in Brazil.

Clubs do have a legal right to refuse their players permission to compete at an Olympic Games. Barcelona won an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over Lionel Messi's withdrawal from the Argentina squad for Beijing 2008, but he was eventually given permission to compete as the five-time Ballon d'Or winner inspired his team to the gold medal.

Tottenham's squad have already assembled for the start of pre-season training following the summer break, though yjru are yet to be joined by players who participated at the European Championship. Mauricio Pochettino's players clocked up 3,544 minutes during the summer finals between them, and have therefore been given extra time to recuperate before the club's summer fixtures begin.

The Spurs first team travel to Melbourne for two matches in the International Champions Cup against Serie A champions Juventus on 26 July and La Liga winners Atletico Madrid on 29 July, before a one-off friendly in Norway against Inter Milan. In all, Tottenham will rack up 22,468 miles worth of travel, more than any of their Premier League counterparts, before the campaign starts on 13 August.