By David Williams

Ben Davies could be about to return to fitness far sooner than first thought in a major boost for Wales.

The Wales captain has been sidelined since suffering a hamstring issue during Tottenham’s loss to Bournemouth on December 5.

It was feared he would be out for a number of weeks, which would have restricted his game time in the period leading into Wales’ opening World Cup qualifiers in March.

But Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou is now optimistic about Davies returning sooner than expected from his injury.

“Ben, that was a week ago and it’s not as bad as we thought,” Postecoglou said on Friday regarding the defender.

“There is a chance he’ll be back, hopefully, before the New Year. So, that was positive. Again, initially we were a bit worried, but you need to give it a week to settle down.

“The latest information I got this morning is that it’s nowhere near as bad as we thought it was and hopefully a quicker turnaround.”

Postecoglou has responded to questions over his criticism of his striker Timo Werner, saying he needs players who are up for the “fight”.

Postecoglou removed Werner at half-time of Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Rangers, after which he called the forward’s performance “unacceptable”.

The manager said on Friday: “It can’t be ability. You don’t play for Germany, you don’t play for big clubs.. .whether it’s a combination of confidence or belief, at this moment we don’t have the luxury of that.

“You’re out there, you’re playing, you’re fit, we don’t have the luxury. Not just him, any player at this moment. He’s got an opportunity to play and it’s not like a bad performance then I’ll leave you out the next game – I’ve got no one else to put in.

“We need all that stuff to be put aside. Whether you’ve got a lack of confidence, lack of belief, whatever it is, to say, ‘well, are you in this fight?’ Because we are in a fight.

“We’ve got a limited number of players to call on, some big games coming up. We can set up our season, I just need people to have that level of commitment and application, and find their way through. As much as I’m talking about Timo, I’m talking about the whole group.

“The norms of football – poor performance, you get left out – they don’t exist in our environment now. I need players going out there and putting that to one side.”