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LONDON -- Erik Lamela has returned to his former club Roma for a treatment on a persistent hip problem. Lamela has not played since an October defeat at Liverpool in the EFL Cup, and returned to his native Argentina for a week early last month after his brother was injured in an accident. In 2013-14, his first season at Tottenham, Lamela was limited to just three league starts due to a persistent back problem and returned to Roma for treatment. Speaking ahead of Sunday's FA Cup third-round clash with Aston Villa, Pochettino confirmed that Lamela, accompanied by a club doctor, had again gone back to Italy to find a solution. "He has strong links in Rome. He has gone there now," Pochettino told a news conference. "They need to change the atmosphere a little bit. Not only he believes, but we believe, that it's important to change a little bit in his mind. "He asked to finish his recovery time there and the club, us, the staff, we believe it is right. We hope that after that period he will available to start to train again with the team." Pochettino said Lamela was frustrated by the lack of progress made in recovering from the problem, which the Spurs boss described as "minor" before the Champions League defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in early November. "Always it's difficult for the player who spends a lot of time [injured] -- more time that he believed and we believed," he added. "Sometimes he's frustrated that he cannot be involved, and today it's only him that is out of the group. "He has a special link with a physio or doctor in Rome. Thank you to Roma for opening the door to him. "We hope that in a few weeks he will maybe be available again to be involved in training sessions with the rest of the group."
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