Three key missing stars from Tottenham training, Mohammed Kudus mystery and happy Maddison moment

Tottenham took to the training pitches of Hotspur Way on Monday afternoon ahead of their Champions League clash against Copenhagen.

Thomas Frank was watching over the session at Spurs' Enfield-based training complex as the media were allowed to watch over 15 minutes of the action on the lush green turf. The session came after Saturday's disappointing derby defeat to Chelsea which brought plenty of criticism for the Dane and his players.

Tottenham will be looking to bounce back with their European league phase tie against Copenhagen, who are fourth in the Danish Superliga.

• Every word Thomas Frank said on his Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence meeting plus Kudus injury
• Guglielmo Vicario explains why he pushed Lucas Bergvall and made gesture at Tottenham supporter

As they worked on the grass at Hotspur Way, football.london's Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was among those watching on for the allotted time to the media. Here are five things we saw in the session.

Who was missing?

The injured Dejan Kulusevski, Ben Davies, Kota Takai, Archie Gray and Yves Bissouma could not be spotted either on the pitch or in the gym and there were three other faces conspicuous by their absence. Lucas Bergvall was not training which suggests the young Swede is going through the concussion protocols after further tests following his swift exit from Saturday's game.

Djed Spence was also absent from the training session, with the last sighting of the England full-back for the Tottenham fans being that awkward walk past Frank after the final whistle when the Spurs boss wanted him and Micky van de Ven to go and applaud the fans and they didn't.

The other missing key man was Mohammed Kudus, which was mysterious at the time because of one thing.

The Kudus mystery

The absence of the 25-year-old from the training session was an unusual one because Kudus was set to be alongside Frank in Monday's press conference.

The summer signing has been a shining light for Spurs since arriving from West Ham and his head coach will not want to lose him from a game that the north London side need to get back to winning ways in.

There may be another reason for Kudus' absence than injury and he might have joined in later in the session, but it did not look good. The mystery should be solved soon.

What they did

Those who were training, with the squad bolstered by plenty of U21s players, went through various passing drills and were already in the swing of things by the time the media came out.

Then the players were led over to another area of the pitches where they took part in rondos in ever-decreasing squares with individual development coach Cameron Campbell in charge of one group and Frank overseeing the whole thing.

When the media departed after their allotted 15 minutes, Spurs would have moved into more tactical work away from the prying eyes.

Fun on the pitch

Despite the disappointment of Saturday's dismal derby, the Tottenham players were enjoying themselves in the rondo work especially.

Destiny Udogie was joking with some of the younger players, falling to the floor on one occasion as if one of them had fouled him, while Richarlison was playing with a smile on his face throughout.

Frank will be hoping that his Spurs stars are still smiling at the end of Tuesday night's match.

Maddison in gym with Solanke

There were a couple of familiar faces in the gym behind the pitches with James Maddison and Dominic Solanke both going through work with sports science staff.

Solanke is on the way back from his ankle injury with Frank saying the striker should be back in action after the coming international break.

Maddison is out for far longer with his anterior cruciate ligament injury and could be seen looking forlornly through the window at those training. He did have a happier moment though at the end of the 15 minutes as he appeared to be involved in, or at least watching, the briefest moment of keepy uppy with a ball in the gym.

The midfielder will be pining for a return to actual ball work in the future when he returns next year.