Mathys Tel has been forced to pull out of the France Under-21 squad, after the ankle injury he picked up from Jayden Bogle’s challenge at Elland Road on Saturday.
The French Football Federation confirmed the withdrawal on Monday, the day Gérald Baticle’s squad gathered at Clairefontaine. Tel will now miss both of France’s games this break, against Italy and England.
It is the first official sign of how badly the 34th-minute challenge hurt him, and it comes with Spurs still waiting on the full medical picture.
What did the French federation say about Tel?
The statement was short. “Having suffered an injury with his club Tottenham, Mathys Tel is forced to withdraw from the France Under-21 team training camp which began this Monday at the CNF Clairefontaine,” the FFF said.
Baticle has chosen not to call up a replacement for him, so France go into the double-header a forward short. There was a second change to the group on the same day: Saël Kumbedi was promoted to the senior squad by Zinédine Zidane to cover for the injured Pierre Kalulu, and KV Mechelen right-back Thérence Koudou was called up in his place.
France are already through to next summer’s Under-21 Euros in Serbia and Albania, so these are warm-up games. They play Italy in Laval on Friday (5.30pm UK time), then England in Bristol on Monday at 7.30pm. That second game would have put Tel up against Archie Gray and Mikey Moore, who were both picked for Lee Carsley’s squad, as we covered in our latest Tottenham loan watch.
Those games now go ahead without him.
How bad is the Mathys Tel injury?
Nobody has put a timescale on it yet. Bogle’s studs caught Tel on the left ankle, around the Achilles, with 34 minutes gone at Leeds. He tried to carry on after lengthy treatment, went down again a few minutes later and was replaced by Dominic Solanke.
He left the ground in a protective boot and on crutches. Roberto De Zerbi did not sound hopeful afterwards. “Mathys had a bad injury on the ankle. We need to make a medical check to understand the situation,” he said at Elland Road, before adding in his press conference: “Bad injury. Now we have to make the medical checks and in the next day we will know the problem.”
Spurs have not given that update yet. The next obvious moment for one is De Zerbi’s press conference before Ipswich Town come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday 21 November, a game he will watch from the stands after his third booking of the season.
Why the Bogle decision still rankles
VAR looked at the challenge for around four minutes and decided it did not meet the bar for serious foul play, so Bogle stayed on the pitch without even a booking. Noah Okafor then won it for Leeds in the 79th minute, as we wrote in our Leeds 1-0 Tottenham report.
Spurs are set to formally ask for an explanation of the decision. Whatever answer comes back, it will not get Tel fit any quicker.
Verdict: the Mathys Tel injury is the one that matters this break
Pulling out of an Under-21 camp is not proof of a long lay-off on its own. Clubs and federations often agree to rest a player who is struggling. But Tel left Leeds in a boot, his head coach called it a bad injury twice, and the federation has not even replaced him. None of that points to a quick knock.
For Spurs, the timing is poor. The winning run ended at Leeds, the attack looked short of ideas in the second half, and the forward who left on crutches was one of the players De Zerbi trusted to start. If the news from the medical checks is bad, RDZ will have to find another answer up front, and he will have to do it from the stands against Ipswich.
