Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou hopes to have Micky van de Ven back mid-January.
The Dutch defender has been absent since November due to a hamstring injury.
Postecoglou said: "He's getting closer, we'll see him sometime in January. I don't think Burnley but Man United on the 14th I think potentially. But again, I don't ok at comeback dates until I see them training with us and he's not part of the group.
"He's not due to be part of the group this week, we'll see how he's going by the end of the week. Once they start training with the group we'll think about when they'll be available.
"He's at the tail end of it for sure so at some point - middle of January definitely we'd think he'd be available but how we use him then, after such a long absence, is going to depend on where we feel he's at."