Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has denied reports of a rift between him and midfielder Tanguy Ndombele.

The France midfielder, who Mourinho met during lockdown to help install his GPS equipment, has not played in either of Spurs’ two games of the Premier League restart.

He did not even warm-up during the 2-0 win over West Ham, which came thanks to a Tomas Soucek own goal and Harry Kane’s 137th goal in 200 league appearances for the club.

Reports emerged in France not long after full-time that Ndombele had told Mourinho he no longer wanted to play for the club, but Mourinho has quashed them.

He said: “No. On the bench was Tanguy, (Ryan) Sessegnon, Toby (Alderweireld), (Jan) Vertonghen, Gedson (Fernandes) and they didn’t play.

“That’s football. For me there’s nothing. I had attacking players on the bench, Lamela and Bergwijn. Two great players to bring on and then Winks to give us more consistency.

“This situation of the five changes, some people maybe think that you have to use all five changes. You don’t have to do it. You have the chances to do it.

“I felt that the team was fine. I never believed that 2-0 was a completely safe result because they were trying everything and one goal could change the state of mind and give them the motivation in the final minutes so I decided to keep the team stable and three changes was enough.

“Would there be uproar if it was ruled out?” Moyes said. “I thought that every ball that hit an arm and led to a goal was to be chalked off.

“If that’s the rule, I was worried that I only had two quick looks at it and it’s definitely hit his arm so it shouldn’t have counted.

“I am asking who is it making that decision? We scored a really good goal in the 90th minute at Sheffield United and the boy claimed it was handball and we couldn’t believe it.

“Do I think it is a good rule? No I don’t. Whoever it was on VAR tonight, didn’t do his job right because he didn’t abide by the rules we were told we are supposed to play to.”