The language barrier is still holding back Roman Pavlyuchenko

Roman Pavlyuchenko is confident Harry Redknapp will give him the chance to extend his Tottenham career - but he admitted he is still struggling to understand his team-mates.

The Russia striker has been left out of the starting line-up for the last three matches, and few would be surprised were the £14million signing to be allowed to leave White Hart Lane in the summer.

Yet with Darren Bent struggling with a knee problem sustained while on England duty - the 25-year-old did not train with his team-mates yesterday and is a serious doubt for tomorrow's trip to Blackburn - Pavlyuchenko could be restored to the side at Ewood Park.

The Russian, who has scored 13 times this season, still needs an interpreter to understand the instructions of manager Harry Redknapp, and the 28-year-old concedes that the language barrier is an issue.

Pavlyuchenko said: "Language is still a big problem. To start learning English from scratch and be able to speak fluently after seven months turned out to be unrealistic. For me it only means that I need to keep working on it.

'My problem is that in London I live in a recurring circle day after day - hotel, training ground, stadium, restaurant. So I'm not learning new words. When this was interrupted by an injury, I easily memorised a number of medical terms.