Steven Pienaar has described his Tottenham Hotspur injury woes as the worst of his career.

The South African, who moved to White Hart Lane from Everton in January, has been limited to only 12 appearances due to a succession of injuries.

However, the 29-year-old has been passed fit for Spurs' Europa League clash against Rubin Kazan on Thursday after recovering from a groin problem that has sidelined him for the last six months.

"It's been the most difficult period of my career," he said. "When you join a new team, you want to start fully fit but I got injured quite early and it slowed down my progress.

"Before the operation we thought we would wait and see how the groin injury developed but it just got worse.

"I had the operation, things were going well, but then I had two setbacks. Sometimes when you try to get back early, that happens. But I'm over the nightmare now so hopefully I can get some minutes."

Spurs go into the match in Russia top of Group A.