Jose Mourinho has explained why he did not pick Harry Kane in his starting line-up and Gareth Bale missed out entirely on the FA Cup fifth round tie at Everton.
Spurs started the cup clash at Goodison Park without a recognised striker with both Kane and Brazilian forward Carlos Vinicius on the bench.
Kane had returned from ankle problems with a goal against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday but Mourinho explained why the England captain was not in his starting line-up at Goodison Park.
"He's the kind of player that you want to play every minute of every match, so for him to be on the bench is because of our conversation," Mourinho told BT Sport.
"He's an experienced guy. He knows his body better than anyone.
"He wanted to be involved because he knows we have to try everything to get to the quarter-finals, but not well enough to start a second game within a couple of days."
One player missing entirely from Mourinho's squad for the game against Everton was Bale and the Spurs boss explained why the Welshman had not made the trip up to Liverpool.
"No he's not on the bench because he wasn't happy with his training session yesterday," he said.
"I would not say an injury, not at all, just some feelings he was not happy with, so it was better to stay back and work with the sports science guys."
