‘And there is a Spurs player down injured here’, said Jon Champion on BT Sport commentary (or something very similar).
‘Don’t be Ndombele, don’t be Ndombele, don’t be Ndombele’, said the nervous fan watching us trail 1-0 at Southampton.
‘It looks like it is Tanguy Ndombele’, confirmed Champion.
‘Bugger.’
Of course it is. The performance at Norwich City was supposed to be the start of Ndombele proving himself as a Premier League force.
But, yet again, he has been let down by a body which you start to fear is not cut out for the rigours of English football, forced off with an injury 26 minutes into the action at St Mary’s and replaced by Giovani Lo Celso.
The Frenchman missed a couple of games earlier this season with a hamstring strain and has been substituted early in several others.
Most Spurs fans on Twitter tried to make light of Ndombele’s latest setback, but others are pointing the finger at Jose Mourinho who handed him two starts in the space of four days, after the 23-year-old’s request to sit out the visit of Brighton & Hove Albion on Boxing Day, as BBC Sport details.