Fears after Tottenham midfielder is stretchered off with injury on international duty

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank looks set to lose Yves Bissouma to another injury

Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma was taken off with an injury just moments into his first game of the season on Sunday night.

The 29-year-old missed the start to Spurs ' season with a knee injury but had got himself back into a position of fitness where he could be called up by Mali during this international break, joining up for their second World Cup qualifying game of the fortnight against Madagascar.

Bissouma entered the fray at the Stade Modibo Keita in the 66th minute but reports from the 4-1 victory claim the midfielder was almost immediately injured after a challenge with an opposition player when the ball first came his way. The Tottenham midfielder was reportedly unable to walk off the pitch on his own and required a stretcher to take him off.

Bissouma's knee injury had scuppered the chances of a move away from N17 this summer. The former Brighton man's contract at the north London club is now approaching its final nine months and Spurs were looking to let him leave, with a transfer to Turkey and other Premier League sides mooted.

However, nothing was forthcoming for the midfielder, who was left out of the UEFA Super Cup squad at the start of the season by his new head coach Thomas Frank due to repeated lateness and then his Champions League squad for the league phase of the competition.

Last month after the window closed, the Spurs boss 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."

Now Bissouma looks to have another injury to deal with. If it is ankle injury as one social media report claimed after the game then the Mali international has previous with such a problem, having missed a chunk of his first season at the club with a stress fracture in his left ankle in February 2023 which required surgery.