Pienaar wants to make a point on return for Spurs

STEVEN Pienaar is determined to win back his place in the Tottenham first team after declaring his injury “nightmare” finally over.

Spurs beat competition from Chelsea to sign Pienaar from Everton in January, but he has only been able to make 12 appearances due to several injuries.

The South Africa midfielder suffered concussion in a head clash with team-mate Bongani Khumalo in February and a niggling groin problem towards the end of last season.

That problem flared up again in pre-season and he needed surgery, ruling him out until mid-September. The 29-year-old has had two setbacks which have kept him out ever since.

After being passed fit for tonight’s Europa League clash against Rubin Kazan, Pienaar said: “It’s been the most difficult period of my career. When you join a new team, you want to start fully fit but I got injured quite early and it slowed down my progress. Before the operation we thought we would wait and see how the groin injury developed but it just got worse.

“I had the operation, things were going well, but then I had two setbacks. But I’m over the nightmare now so, hopefully, I can get some minutes.”

Pienaar always faced a huge battle with Gareth Bale to win a place in his preferred position on the left wing, and the centre of midfield was seen as the most likely place where he would break in to the Spurs side.

The arrival of England midfielder Scott Parker lessened the chances of that, however, and manager Harry Redknapp has sung the praises of young academy product Jake Livermore, who has excelled since making his first-team debut.

Redknapp will not be in the dug-out in Kazan tonight as he recovers from a heart procedure, but will be watching from his hospital bed, and Pienaar hopes to give the 64-year-old a reminder of his talents in the Group A clash.

“When you get injured, you fall down the pecking order. You are basically the bottom of the pile,” said Pienaar. “But you have to make sure you get fit, be patient and work hard.”

Tottenham can guarantee their passage to the last 32 with a victory, but Redknapp has made it clear that the Barclays Premier League is the club’s priority and has blooded several youngsters in previous wins over Shamrock and Rubin, and their draw at PAOK Salonika.

Luka Modric, Scott Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor have not made the 2,000-mile trip to the Russian republic of Tatarstan, but internationals Jermain Defoe, Sebastien Bassong and Roman Pavlyuchenko are in the party.