Kevin Danso is excited by Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero’s impending returns.

The Netherlands and Argentina international defensive duo have travelled with the squad for Thursday’s UEFA Europa League clash with AZ Alkmaar as they edge closer to making their respective comebacks after long-term injury problems.

It remains to be seen how much of a role they will play in the first leg of Spurs' round of 16 tie but, for fellow centre-back Kevin, who has produced a string of superb performances since his arrival from RC Lens at the start of last month, the fact that the pair are back in training and set to return to action in the near future makes his own job all the more enticing.

“I'm looking forward to (working with them),” he told SPURSPLAY as he surveyed the scene at AZ’s stadium before training on Wednesday evening. “I think we all know that they’re two amazing centre-backs who have proven a lot since they’ve been here and, you know, I’m new here and I’ve still got a lot to prove. That’s football – it’s good to have healthy competition. I’ll push them, they’ll push me and at the end of the day, we’ve all got one goal in mind, and that’s to finish in the league as high as possible and to try and win this competition.”

Although Kevin has a healthy amount of Champions League experience, his only prior outing in the Europa League came in February last year, when he helped Lens keep a clean sheet at home to Freiburg. With this competition earmarked by many as a good chance to show what Spurs can do after a challenging campaign on the domestic scene, the dynamic defender can’t wait to run out under the lights in the Netherlands on Thursday.

“I’m looking forward to it because it’s a new team to play and, you know, the latter stages of European competitions are always good, there’s a bit of pressure and if you want to be a trophy-winning side, you need to deal with the pressure. What better moment than to start it off tomorrow with a win?

“It’s definitely a very big game, like every European match. It’s a game that’s going to be tough, AZ are very good at home but we’re going to come out and try to win.”

Ever-present in the starting line-up since his arrival, Kevin underlined how he wants to build on his solid start in Spurs' colours in the weeks and months ahead.

“I’m really enjoying it here,” he added. “Like I keep saying, the people around the club – the players, the coaching staff – have made it super easy for me to come in and I just want to be able to help the team as much as possible by getting as many clean sheets and wins as we can.”