Tottenham player carried off with injury minutes into international appearance

One of Tottenham’s players suffered a fresh injury blow on Sunday after returning to action following a long lay off. Spurs fans will be crossing their fingers in hope that all of their stars return to base fit and well after the internationals, but while it’s so far, so good on most fronts, one player has suffered a setback.

Yves Bissouma has been out since the start of the Premier League season, picking up an injury after being dropped from the Super Cup squad due to tardiness.

Thomas Frank has since made it clear that Bissouma will be offered a chance to fight for minutes when he returns to fitness, and he returned to fitness in time for Mali’s comfortable win over Madagasgar in their final World Cup qualifier on Sunday night.

Mali could not qualify for the World Cup, while Madagasgar knew that they were extremely unlikely to qualify automatically due to Ghana being three points ahead and possessing a much better goal difference. Madagasgar must now wait to see if they will be one of the four-best second--placed teams, and it looks unlikely due to the points tallies of some of the teams in the other groups with games still to play.

As for Mali, they just wanted to go out with a bang, and they did, winning 4-1, but it was a frustrating night for Bissouma, who came off the bench in the 66th minute and almost instantly picked up an injury that forced him off. What’s worse, it has been reported that the midfielder required a stretcher and could not leave the pitch under his own power.

Bissouma had been struggling with a knee injury since the start of the season but we don’t yet have details on whether this is a reoccurance of a fresh injury blow. The injury is a real blow for Bissouma after a frustrating start to the season, and it may also impact his future.

The midfielder is out of contract next summer, and Tottenham will likely want to sell him for some sort of fee to prevent a free departure next summer, but this injury could have a major impact on Tottenham’s ability to sell him. Naturally, though, concern for now is with the player and for his sake, it is hopefully not a serious or long-term issue.

Frank’s olive branch

Speaking in September when asked whether Bissouma would be considered for future squads in the wake of the midfielder being dropped for the Super Cup, Frank said: “There are no hard feelings at all. Not before, not now, not at all. Train well and everyone has an opportunity.

"He has just started to run outside, so he is not part of the group but everything I've seen when I’ve said hello to him and every day with the players, he seems good."

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