Tottenham midfielder Paulinho has returned to his former club Corinthians, at least on a temporary basis. It has been revealed by the Brazilian club that the 25-year-old will be training with them in Brazil prior to the start of the World Cup 2014. Brazil will be taking a risk on the midfielder, who has rarely featured for the Tottenham first-team in the second half of the season. Former club manager Tim Sherwood even challenged Paulinho to show his best form next season onwards. Paulinho was a £ 16 million signing in the summer after he moved from Corinthians.

Prior to the move, he had spent five years with the Brazilian club from 2008 to 2013. He soon after the move, it seems that he still maintains cordial relationship with his former club, as they have allowed him to use their training facilities before the World Cup. Brazil’s opening match of the tournament will be against Croatia, but before that, they come up against the likes of Panama and Serbia in friendly matches. It is expected that Paulinho has to impressive heavily in order to feature in the final squad, as manager Luiz Felipe Scolari has only named a provisional squad until now.

It is expected that performance in this too friendly matches will play a major role in selection for the final squad.

“It’s a great pleasure to train at Corinthians and even more so because I’m preparing for a World Cup. I was fortunate to have one of the happiest times of my life at Corinthians and it’s going to be good for me [to be back],” said the midfielder about his return to Corinthians – at least on a temporary basis. There has been a lot of speculation about the future of the midfielder at Tottenham with Chelsea being interested in him.