France coach Didier Deschamps has revealed that his top goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, is “finding life difficult” as he continues to play understudy to Tottenham teammate Brad Friedel and has only been used sporadically under club manager Andre Villas-Boas.

“He has had insufficient playing time (with his club) and is finding life difficult,” the former Monaco, Juventus and Marseille coach said on Thursday.

“His situation is difficult and weighing on him, which is not ideal and something I understand.

“To find himself on the bench after the match he played for us against Spain is not easy,” continued the former France captain in reference to the world class performance turned in by Lloris in the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw in October.

Lloris has started just one Premier League match for Tottenham, when he kept a clean sheet in the 2-0 victory over Aston Villa on October 7, but has since been kept out of action by the 41-year-old American who was in goal for the subsequent home defeats against Chelsea (2-4) and Wigan (0-1).

Playing time for the 25-year-old, three-time French keeper of the year has been limited to Cup competitions and he is set to make his sixth appearance on Thursday, when Spurs host Slovenian club Maribor in the Europa League.

“He plays one match a week, the Europa League and if he plays tonight (Thursday), it will be his third match since his last game for France. He cannot be happy to play one match every two or three,” Deschamps said.

Lloris who began his career at Nice in 2005, before four sparkling seasons at Lyon where he became France number one, signed with the North Londoners for STG10 million on the eve of the transfer deadline.

He has been on the losing side once, when Norwich scored two late goals to knock Tottenham out of the League Cup 2-1 at Carrow Road, and was considered to be at fault on the winning goal.

Friedel picked up 82 caps for the United States between 1992 and 2005 and is well known to the Premier League after setting a record of 310 consecutive appearances playing for Blackburn, Aston Villa and Tottenham before Villa-Boas replaced him with Lloris for his only league match against Villa.