Tottenham are set to submit a formal complaint about the decision not to send off Jayden Bogle for his challenge on Mathys Tel during their 1-0 defeat to Leeds.
Tel had to come off shortly before half time after Bogle landed with his studs up on the Frenchman’s left Achilles at Elland Road.
Despite initially trying to play on, the forward soon signalled to come off and was later spotted with crutches and a protective boot on.
Roberto De Zerbi said in his post-match press conference that while further medical checks will take place, the initial fear is that Tel has suffered “a bad injury” and is likely to spend a considerable amount of time on the sidelines.
Standard Sport understands Tottenham believe Bogle, who received no punishment for the challenge despite a four-minute VAR review, should have been sent off and will write to the refereeing body, Pro Ref, to seek an explanation as to why Bogle was not dismissed.
While De Zerbi was reluctant to blame the decision for Spurs’ performance, the north London side lost control of the game after Tel’s withdrawal, with Noah Okafor eventually breaking the deadlock in the 79th minute.
On the incident, the head coach said he had full confidence in VAR despite venting his frustrations on the touchline and receiving a yellow card, which will now see him serve a touchline ban when Spurs return to action at home to Ipswich.
“No, I have big confidence in the referee,” De Zerbi said when asked if he would have wanted referee John Brooks to go to the monitor to review Bogle’s challenge.
“Nothing changes if he goes to watch the clip or not. I think there was the VAR, and if they didn’t take the right decision, I don’t know. But we have confidence, we have to keep our eyes on the performance where we can improve.”