Gareth Bale Injures Ankle In Tottenham’s 2-2 Draw With Basel

Gareth Bale injured his ankle during Tottenham’s 2-2 stalemate with Basel in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final at White Hart Lane on Thursday.

Spurs supporters could only look on in disbelief when the Welsh international was stretchered off the field in the late going after turning his ankle.

The full extent of the injury will not be known until Bale undergoes some medical scans on Friday.

It is unknown whether Bale will miss the rest of the season but Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas doesn’t think the injury was as gruesome as it looked.

“Gareth has rolled over his ankle and we still need to get an assessment that we can only have on Friday,” he said. “But it shouldn’t be as bad as it looks in the images. He has torn that ligament before and there’s nothing to tear.

“There is lots of swelling and the pain is very, very big but we hope to assess him on Friday.”

The English outfit fell behind 2-0 after first-half goals from Valentin Stocker and Fabian Frei stunned the White Hart Lane faithful.

However, Emmanuel Adebayor cut the deficit in half before substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson brought the home side back on level terms with a stunning shot from 25 yards out.

Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel then had to make two excellent stops late on to preserve the draw but that will all take a backseat to Gareth Bale’s injury.

Villas-Boas for his part was keen to keep a positive attitude and is hoping that Bale will be back sooner rather than later.

“Gareth will definitely play again this season, we will know better on Friday but I’m pretty confident,” he said.

Gareth Bale’s injury not only puts a damper on the club’s hopes to progress further into the Europa League, but also more importantly, secure a top four finish in the English Premier League.