Stoke City vs Tottenham preview

Harry Redknapp could welcome back both William Gallas and Sandro for the Carling Cup encounter with Stoke City on Tuesday night.

Sandro suffered a knee injury while on international duty with Brazil during the Copa America and with surgery deemed the best course of action, the former Internacional midfielder was forced to miss the club's pre-season programme and all of Spurs' games so far this season.

Gallas has suffered from a calf problem since the beginning of pre-season and like Sandro, has yet to make an appearance this campaign.

Both players were influential in Spurs' fifth place finish last year and Redknapp is optimistic about the duos return against Stoke.

"I'm hoping William Gallas may be okay to come back, we'll see how he is after training this morning," Redknapp told the Official Tottenham Hotspur Website.

"Sandro is also on his way back and I may get an hour out of him tomorrow. It would be great if I could get those two back playing again.

"Other than that it will be one or two of the younger players who have played recently and done well and one or two of the seniors players who didn't feature on Sunday."

Redknapp is expected to make a number of changes ahead of the visit to the Britannia stadium but is expecting nothing than a win from his players.

"We want to stay in the competition, we want to win and go all the way if we can," he added.

"We could have Sandro and William Gallas back, Pav needs another game, van der Vaart is back, Gomes, Bassong, Corluka - that's not a bad team, is it?

"One or two of the youngsters will get another chance as well."

Michael Dawson (achilles), Danny Rose (ankle), Steven Pienaar (groin), Tom Huddlestone (ankle) and Aaron Lennon (groin) all remain sidelined.

Potential starting XI:

Gomes; Corluka, Bassong, Gallas, Townsend; Falque, Sandro, Livermore, Dos Santos; Van der Vaart Pavlyuchenko