Gareth Bale injured, stretchered off against FC Basel

Gareth Bale was forced to leave Tottenham Hotspur's UEFA Europa League tie with FC Basel due to what appeared to be a serious injury to his right ankle. In the dying minutes of the match, Bale turned his right ankle on the pitch and went down clutching it. He was unable to leave under his own power and went off on a stretcher.

It goes without saying that this would be disastrous for Tottenham if Bale's injury is serious. The good news for Spurs is that they have a 10-day layoff following the return leg in Basel next week. If Bale's injury is merely a sprained or turned ankle, it's possible that he could only miss a pair of games.

That's the good news, in terms of timing. The bad news in terms of timing is that Aaron Lennon left the game earlier after appearing to re-aggravate a hamstring injury. With Andros Townsend out on loan, Spurs are likely to have no healthy senior wingers for the weekend.

We can only hope that the stretcher was a precaution and that Bale isn't seriously hurt. I'm going to spoil the post-match presser for you: Andre Villas-Boas will say that Spurs don't know how serious it is and that he will have a scan on his ankle on Friday.