Romero's forfeit, Sarr pushing him over and why Thomas Frank laughed at Tottenham captain

The Tottenham players were in high spirits in training on Monday afternoon ahead of the Champions League clash with Villarreal.

Thomas Frank and his coaching staff led the Spurs squad through their work in preparation for the opening European fixture on Tuesday but there was plenty of time for laughter in the more relaxed moments of the session at the club's Hotspur Way training complex in Enfield with the Dane playing his part in instigating it.

The training session, which took place in driving rain for periods, was open for the media to observe for 15 minutes as the players went through a couple of different drills.

Here are some different things we spotted during the period of time we got to watch the training session at Hotspur Way.

Who was missing?

The main first team players missing from the session were Dominic Solankeand Kota Takai in terms of those who were meant to be close to returning but clearly are not yet.

Some of the longer term injured players could be seen continuing to work on their rehabilitation in the gym, including James Maddison, who stood against the window and looked out forlornly at one point, as well as Dejan Kulusevski and Yves Bissouma.

During the media's time around the training pitches, neither Solanke nor Takai could be spotted either on the pitch or in the big glass-sided gym.

There were also a group of young academy players who appeared later in the session and were taken by first team pathway coach Stuart Lewis to do some work on a separate pitch.

Dragusin's different plan

One of the players who was involved but isn't registered to play tomorrow wasRadu Dragusin. The big Romanian has recently returned to training after eight months out with the anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered against Elfsborg in the Europa League in January.

While the centre-back took part in certain elements of training, he was taken out of the group when they started a big rondo featuring slide tackles and high energy pressing. Dragusin didn't look delighted about being taken away but threw himself into some individual drills with one of the sports science staff on a separate pitch before re-joining the group as the reporters' time watching ended.

What they did

This was only a snapshot of training and the media had to wait briefly before entering the pitch area to allow Frank to finish off some tactical work with his Spurs players.

What the reporters got to see was passing drills and a very energetic rondo with players sliding in, including Lucas Bergvall flying into a challenge in the rain towards Joao Palhinha that thankfully stopped just short of the jumping Portuguese.

It might just have brought a flashback for the summer signing after Thomas Soucek's lunge on Saturday which resulted in a red card for the West Ham midfielder.

Romero fun

The Tottenham captain was often at the centre of the fun in the rondo section of the training session. He spent various periods in the middle and rather than being the one bringing the aggressive moves, he occasionally found himself on the end of them.

Pape Matar Sarr launched towards Romero at one point and after the ball had gone pushed his skipper from behind over and on to the wet grass. The media were all expecting a reaction but with Sarr someone Romero is often grabbing and teasing, similar to the Senegal midfielder's relationship with Richarlison, the Argentine just sat up and grinned at his team-mate.

There were plenty of flicks and tricks during the rondo but it did result in a punishment for the club captain.

Romero's punishment

Whatever the reason, perhaps for having to go into the middle of the rondo more than others, Romero had to complete a set of push-ups as a punishment afterwards with Frank watching very closely and counting as did some of his team-mates.

They were not the perfect set of push-ups but the rain-soaked Argentine got away with them and when he got up from the ground his head coach was laughing loudly and the pair hugged for a little while before walking off arm in arm for a spell.

Romero will take part in his first press conference at Spurs alongside Frank this afternoon and football.london will have all of the latest updates from it by heading right here.