James Maddison has been ruled out until January with an ankle injury, Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has confirmed.
The 26-year-old midfielder has withdrawn from the England squad for November’s Euro 2024 qualifiers.
He sustained the injury in Tottenham’s chaotic 4-1 defeat by Chelsea in the Premier League on Monday.
“Fair to say a fair bit happened after Monday,” said Postecoglou, who revealed defender Micky van de Ven would also be out until the new year.
“[Maddison] is a lot worse than we thought. He came off with an ankle injury and the next day wasn’t great, so we sent him for a scan.”
Van de Ven, who signed for Spurs in the summer from Wolfsburg, pulled up with a hamstring injury in the same match.
“Micky obviously with that hamstring injury, we knew it was fairly significant, probably a couple of months for him looking into the new year,” Postecoglou added.
Tottenham are also without Brazil forward Richarlison, who had an operation on a groin injury earlier this month, but Postecoglou says he should be back shortly after the international break.
Defenders Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie will miss Saturday’s Premier League game against Wolves through suspension after they both received red cards against Chelsea.
England play Malta at Wembley on Friday, 17 November before travelling to North Macedonia three days later.
Maddison has made five appearances for England and was an unused substitute in the 3-1 victory over Italy in October which secured Euro 2024 qualification for Gareth Southgate’s side with two games to spare.