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Robert Warlow

Former Spurs star on the big decision Mauricio Pochettino will have to make for Liverpool clash

Harry Kane's potential return to fitness for the Champions League final will give Mauricio Pochettino a selection headache for the game against Liverpool.

That's according to former Tottenham striker Teddy Sheringham, who says that while Pochettino will want to include his star striker if he is fit for the clash, he says he cannot leave out hat-trick hero Lucas Moura.

The Brazilian scored all three goals as Tottenham came from 3-0 down on aggregate to beat Ajax on away goals on Wednesday night, earning plenty of plaudits for his performance.

And Sheringham admits Pochettino will have a tough call to make for the final, should Kane be available.

"For the final, it looks like [Harry] Kane is going to be back, [Lucas] Moura is playing out of his skin scoring a hat-trick in the semi-final," Sheringham told Love Sport Radio .

"You can’t leave him out. What would you do? You’d be absolutely devastated. If you scored a hat-trick in the semi-final, then he [Pochettino] says you’re not playing in the final, you’d be devastated.

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"But the manager has got a decision to make, hopefully he’ll have all his players fit and raring to go but that’s what he’s there for, to make these decisions.

"I have heard silly comments that Tottenham are better off without Kane and they get better results, but not the big games. When you have your big games, you want your big players playing. If Kane is fit and raring to go, I wouldn’t be surprised if he [Pochettino] puts him straight back in.

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"It’s another three weeks away and I’m sure he was on the cusp of being fit [for Ajax], there was a lot of talk about it and now he can relax and make sure his ankle is good and proper and that gives him another 14 days' rest before he gets involved in any sort of tangling on the pitch."

Fernando Llorente also earned praise for his performance after coming on as a substitute in Amsterdam, and Sheringham admits that he too has given Pochettino food for thought.

"I thought he was fantastic," said Sheringham.

"He did get a bit of stick off all supporters, not just the Tottenham fans, since he’s come in.  But he was fantastic [against Ajax], he headed it on when he needed to, held it up when he needed to and laid it off when he needed to.

"It was the perfect substitution to go on there and say; ‘look this is not working tonight what we normally do because Ajax are a fantastic team, let’s change it up a bit and rattle them'. They’ve got a young centre-half who is a fantastic player in Matthijs de Ligt but he couldn’t handle the long ball up front.

"Then there's Daley Blind who is about 5ft 5in as a centre half so it worked perfectly and it got them back into the game."

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