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Igor Tudor has confirmed Djed Spence will miss Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League clash against Crystal Palace on Thursday.

The defender missed the weekend trip to Fulham with a calf injury, with Archie Gray filling in at left-back. There had been hope that Spence may be fit to return against the Eagles but Tudor insisted the game has come too soon for the 25-year-old.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday,interim head coach Tudor said: "No Djed is out, he's not ready for the game tomorrow." Pressed for an update on Destiny Udogie and Dejan Kulusevski, Tudor added: "No, not yet. Kevin (Danso) is back, last game already. Yeah, so he's back. No other news. There is no other news."

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When asked for a timeframe on Spence, the former Juventus head coach said: "We hope for Champions League." Elsewhere, Wilson Odobert, James Maddison, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies and Lucas Bergvall remain out due to injury. Cristian Romero, meanwhile, is suspended.

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Tottenham go into the clash against Palace on the back of a 2-1 loss to Fulham. Asked if he is tempted to change the starting XI and tactics following the weekend defeat, Tudor said: "No, we need to choose the right players of course. There are a lot of things to improve, you work day by day, you see that the players want to come, that's the thing that makes me positive, makes me believe that we will do it.

"That's the key in the end, waiting for other players to come back to give something to the team. Like Pedro [Porro], last game he came out and immediately you see that he gives something to the team-mates, so Kevin [Danso] is coming back, we're expecting Cuti [Romero], [Destiny] Udogie who will come back, Djed [Spence] will come back, so it's important to have all pieces together.

"All the teams in the Premier League struggle without seven, eight, 10 players, so it's not that the other teams, when they have players to complete, it's one team where they don't have so it is how it is. So we're waiting for the players to come back to give the energy, to give the quality, until now, until then we work to do things better."

Spurs sit 16th in the Premier League having picked up just 29 points from 28 matches this season. Tudor's side are just four points above West Ham, who currently occupy 18th. Palace, meanwhile, are six points ahead of Tottenham in 14th.

Asked if Spurs must get three points on Thursday, Tudor said: "No, there is no must-win game, all the games need to be won, we need to be first of all doing the right way, doing the best thing you can do. Thinking about [this], I always say this, don't bring nothing in the way that, you need to prepare, think about you, you, to understand who you are as a team, what the players need, what the players can give to be better as a team, to prepare in this way and then that will be good."

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