Sandro continues Tottenham comeback with appearance for under-21s

Brazilian suffered serious knee injury in January

Sandro suffered a serious knee injury in January (Getty Images)

Sandro continued his return to fitness with a cameo appearance for Tottenham Hotspur’s under-21 side on Monday afternoon.

The Brazilian, without a league appearance in seven months after suffering a serious knee injury in January, played 67 minutes with first-team manager Andre Villas-Boas and Technical Director Franco Baldini watching on, as Spurs overcame Manchester City 6-3.

The Brazilian headed wide and helped set up the fifth goal for Harry Kane, who bagged a hat-trick, before being replaced by Laste Dombaxe with 23 minutes remaining.

Sandro came on as a substitute in Spurs’ final pre-season friendly against Espanyol on 10 August but was left out of the squad for Sunday’s opening Premier League victory at Crystal Palace. He will now target a return in Sunday’s home match with Swansea City, although faces competition for places from Paulinho, Étienne Capoue and Mousa Dembélé, all of whom impressed at Selhurst Park.

Tom Carroll, Iago Falqué and Shaquille Coulthirst also found the net for a Spurs side including Andros Townsend. The victory follows a 4-2 win over Chelsea earlier this month in the club’s opening U21 Premier League game.

Sandro tweeted after the game: "Today I played with the Under-21. I feel very well ... thank u God.. come on Spurs..."

Tottenham’s first team began their Premier League season with a 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace on Sunday, and Villas-Boas may opt to use Thursday’s Europa League trip to Georgia, where the club take on Dinamo Tbilisi in the first leg of the qualifying play-off, to blood some of the youth and fringe players involved against Manchester City.

Kane was delighted with his treble for Spurs, who won last year’s Elite League before losing a play-off against Manchester United, tweeting afterwards: “Good run out again today for u21s ! Lads were different class again ! Felt good to get a hattrick ! Great win #popping.”