Europa League: Tottenham use blood spinning to aid Jan Vertonghen recovery

Tottenham will use a blood-spinning technique to try to get Jan Vertonghen back to fitness in quick time and thus avoid a defensive crisis during the busy Christmas period.

Vertonghen suffered ankle ligament damage during Spurs' 2-1 win over Fulham last week, and given that Vlad Chiriches and Younes Kaboul are currently injured, Tottenham need the centre-back as soon as possible.

From a sample of the player's blood, platelets – the cells that assist healing – will be removed and then injected back into the injured area.

The technique, known as PRP (platelet-rich plasma), is supposed to improve recovery time, and given that Spurs have six games in the next 17 days, starting at home against Anzhi Makhachkala in the Europa League, his swift return would be timely.

"We will have the player in a boot for one to two weeks to try to settle it," Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas said of Vertonghen. "We want to avoid surgery so we will use PRP treatment to try to get him back as soon as possible. We've had outstanding results with PRP treatment and we will do that again now."

Midfielder Christian Eriksen and defender Danny Rose are available after overcoming respective ankle and toe injuries. Villas-Boas is expected to give his fringe players a run out as Spurs have already won Group K.

Swansea's preparation for their final Europa League group match against St Gallen was disrupted as their departure was severely delayed.

Swansea had planned a 10am departure from Cardiff Airport but fog meant that was not possible. A subsequent technical issue with the plane meant Swansea did not leave for Switzerland until after 4.30pm. Michael Laudrup's side are well placed to qualify, standing second in their group, three points ahead of Kuban Krasnodar, who face a difficult trip to Valencia.

PA