De Zerbi fears ‘bad injury’ for Tel – and insists Spurs’ defeat to Leeds ‘part of the journey’

Tottenham boss Roberto De Zerbi says Mathys Tel may have suffered a “bad injury” during his side’s 1-0 defeat to Leeds United.

Tel will undergo further medical checks to determine the extent of the problem after a challenge from Jayden Bogle.

“Bad injury, and now we have to make the medical check,” De Zerbi said.

“In the next days we will know what is the problem.”

De Zerbi was also heavily critical of Tottenham’s second-half performance at Elland Road, insisting his side failed to show enough personality as Noah Okafor scored a late winner to bring Spurs’ three-game winning run to an end.

“Two different games in the same game,” he said.

“In the first half we played, okay, not the best game, but we were alive, we attacked, we created two or three clear chances to score and we didn’t suffer anything.

“In the second half, I don’t know why, but we suffered too much and we decided to lose the game.

“We didn’t win any duel, we didn’t win any one-to-one.

“There was space to play and we didn’t take the right decision, take the right position. We didn’t show personality, we didn’t show what we are, who we are.”

The Spurs boss said the performance must be viewed honestly if his team are to continue progressing.

“It’s a part of the journey, for sure,” he added.

“It’s not an excuse, but it can be normal in football.

“But we have to be honest, because if you are not honest today, I think the future is not good.

“If you are honest and analyse honestly our behaviour in the second half, I think we can become a top team.

“My players worked very well this week.

“We spoke all week, all days, about the intensity, about the type of game we would have found in this stadium, the atmosphere we would have found in this stadium.

“So it was not a surprise for us.

“Sometimes it can happen. You are prepared for that game, that type of game, you know everything, but at the end we didn’t play like we wanted before the game.”