Jermain Defoe has begun to train with his former club, Tottenham Hotspur, as he seeks to fire his fitness in order to win a January move to a Premier League club.

The striker, who wants a return to English football from FC Toronto, where he endured a rather frustrating year, is a target for a host of Premier League clubs, including Leicester City, Hull City, Queens Park Rangers and Sunderland, while he has also been offered to Liverpool. Defoe would love to join Brendan Rodgers’ team.

A comeback to Tottenham is not on the cards at this stage, even though there are doubts over the White Hart Lane futures of Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado. The club have simply been happy to help Defoe on his fitness drive, as they previously did, for example, with Robbie Keane, another former favourite, when he was pushing for a January loan from Los Angeles Galaxy. Keane got a temporary move to Aston Villa in January 2012.

Defoe trained on his own at Tottenham’s Enfield headquarters on Wednesday while he joined up with Ugo Ehiogu’s development squad on Thursday. He has just returned from France, where he worked with the fitness trainer, Tiberius Darau, who he credits with helping him to make England’s Euro 2012 squad, even though he was not a first choice at the time for Tottenham. Defoe is scheduled to work for a week at the Tottenham training ground.

The 32-year-old has not played since October, when Toronto’s bid for a first play-off appearance fell short. Defoe’s record at the club reads well – 11 goals in 19 games – but his surprise move to north America from Tottenham has not worked out as everybody had hoped it would. He suffered from injuries and Toronto are now open to cutting their losses with a permanent sale. They do not want to loan him.