Pavlyuchenko, the £13.8million signing from Spartak Moscow, arrived at White Hart Lane on the back of a full season in the Russian league and Euro 2008, with head coach Ramos suggesting last week that it is difficult to rest the forward as Spurs are short in attack.

After being ineligible for the UEFA Cup clash against Wisla Krakow last week, Pavlyuchenko was still training at full tilt.

"In England they have a different system of training," the 26-year-old told the Russian Sovetski-Sport newspaper.

"Right now the games are on Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. The training is like this - those who played get to recover, and the rest do light training with the ball. It's not that tough.

"But when there is a week's gap between games, training is serious. I barely survived it when I'd just arrived. I looked at my watch and saw that the training session had gone on for exactly two hours! Then another half an hour in the gym. Two and a half hours. Can you imagine that?

"I trained like never in my life before. The weights started to get to me, and I stopped and said to the trainer, 'I can't do this'. That's how they work - I'm shocked. I thought it would be a lot easier."

One player who has not been in full training is Alan Hutton and it is uncertain when he will return from his foot injury, raising doubts over whether he will be available for Scotland's clash against Norway on October 11.

The right-back will have a scan next week at the earliest and only then will it be decided when he can step up his preparations for a return.

Meanwhile, Southampton have denied that Spurs have approached them for 20-year-old forward Adam Lallana.

"There has been no official approach from Tottenham Hotspur for Adam Lallana," a club spokesman told the Southern Daily Echo.