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Dominic Solanke limped out of Tottenham’s defeat to AZ Alkmaar after coming on as a second half substitute on his return from a previous injury.
The striker had been out since January with a knee problem but came off the bench on 72 minutes in Alkmaar, replacing captain Son Heung-min.
However, he lasted just 20 minutes, limping off the field, replaced by Dane Scarlett in injury time of the 1-0 loss.
The injury came after a collision with AZ goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, with Solanke jumping for a header and coming off badly from the impact with the stopper.
It looked like the Spurs man got a knee in his lower back or possibly his hip and was clearly in serious discomfort as he writhed on the ground.
There seemed every chance that it was just an impact injury and that Solanke may be able to run it off but he limped out of the match and looked in a lot of pain after he left the field.
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou is hopeful it is nothing serious, saying after the match: ‘We think it’s a knock, so hopefully nothing too bad. He’s a bit sore.’
It was a bad moment on a bad night for Spurs as they lost thanks to a Lucas Bergvall own goal early in the first half.
The midfielder was unlucky as a sliced clearance looped into his own goal on 18 minutes, but Tottenham were unable to recover.
Captain Son didn’t pull any punches in his assessment of the performance, which needs to be much better in the second leg of the tie next week.
‘It’s nowhere near where we should perform,’ Son told TNT Sports. ‘It was very disappointing that we performed like this, including me. It’s a big wake up call because next week is the biggest game of the season.
‘I really don’t think there was too much caution. It’s always tough to play away in the Europa League. We didn’t create anything in the first half, sloppiness, not performing the way we should.
‘Everyone is very disappointed about the individual performance and the team performance, we have to look at ourselves. There is no excuses, we were not good enough. It’s just 1-0, it’s still not finished, and next week we have to be much better.’
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