Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and the three injury surprises Tottenham are hoping for

Tottenham are staring the very real threat of relegation in the face in the final two months of the Premier League and they need help

Tottenham need the cavalry to march over the horizon as they battle to avoid the drop from the Premier League.

Spurs are 17th in the table after Sunday's dismal 3-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest, despite the best efforts of the fans before and during the game. The north London side collapsed after conceding Igor Jesus' goal just before half-time and strikes from Morgan Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi confirmed Forest's comfortable victory in N17.

A number of Tottenham's injured players watched on from the sidelines and tried to cheer their team on to no avail, many of them hoping to be back to help out on the pitch.

One small positive on the day itself was that Tottenham's bench has begun to look stronger, but there are still some big players yet to return and interim head coach Igor Tudor told football.london ahead of the game that he hoped this current three-week break in fixtures might bring some more help from the treatment room and a couple of "nice surprises".

Here are four players who would give Spurs something huge if they can return for any of the final seven matches of the season even if they will take some time to get sharp.

Mohammed Kudus

Kudus suffered a serious quad tendon injury in the draw against Sunderland at home back in January but Tudor had some positive news on the attacker. That came after Ghana head coach Otto Addo, as expected, did not name him in the 26-man squad for the international friendlies against Austria and Germany later this month.

"So we have this big three weeks after the game on Sunday. He will probably do some part of the things with the squad maybe 10 days [after the break]," the Croatian told football.london. "I don’t know I’m not sure. We need to check but he is progressing very well. Already a little bit with the ball."

The 25-year-old had provided nine goal involvements in 24 Premier League and Champions League matches for Spurs before being run into the ground by Thomas Frank.

This big break will give Kudus more time to get closer to a return and it may be sooner rather than later that he is spotted on the training pitches at Hotspur Way.

Rodrigo Bentancur

Bentancur required surgery on a serious hamstring injury in January and Tudor mentioned both the Uruguayan and Maddison when speaking about Kudus to football.london.

"Rodrigo as well, Maddison as well. We hope the medical staff will make us some nice surprise in the next weeks which would be very important to have that," said the Spurs boss.

Last week Bentancur's personal fitness coach, Daniel Fernandez, provided a detailed update on his progress as he explained to Uruguayan radio 100% Deporte that the surgical wound had healed well and Bentancur's rehabilitation is currently around 15 days ahead of the original prognosis.

The midfielder has already returned to working on the grass after weeks spent in rehabilitation and strength training. Fernandez said that Bentancur should be ready to return to training by the end of March but would not be realistically available for first-team action until the end of April if there are no setbacks.

James Maddison

Maddison could be seen standing on the touchline on Sunday dishing out instructions to Djed Spence during the first half, clearly desperate to be part of things again.

The 29-year-old midfielder uploaded a social media video last week showing his trip to Manchester for further ACL tests and exercises to help with the final stages of rehabilitation.

Tudor had good news on the player when football.london asked if Maddison could be back before the end of the season.

"Yes. Maddison is already doing interesting things as well with the ball. Sprinting as well. I saw him. He is positive. He's positive," he said.

At training on Tuesday at Hotspur Way, Maddison could be seen running over to a nearby pitch to work outdoors in the sunshine alone with a member of staff.

Dejan Kulusevski

It's remarkable that we're speaking about Maddison with his ACL injury coming back before Kulusevski. Everyone has been waiting for the Swede to return, with estimates of his return from that patella surgery last April repeatedly pushed back.

Initially it was handful of months, then it became before the end of last year with Frank then saying he would definitely be back before the end of the season. As the Dane's tenure came towards its end, football.london asked Frank again about Kulusevski and he admitted he was unsure if the 25-year-old would play during this campaign.

On Friday, we asked Tudor if there has been any progress with the Swede and he could only say: "No, not yet."

The key for the Swede was always to be able to move without feeling pain or discomfort after a complicated knee injury that Frank said was 'historic' in how rare it was.

Sweden boss Graham Potter admitted this week at his press conference, after not including Kulusevski in his 26-man squad: "Dejan is making progress but not as quickly as we would have liked."

Whether the key Spurs man returns in time to help the club remains to be seen but his three team-mates might just be some nice surprises in the weeks ahead.