Harry Redknapp has confirmed that Jermain Defoe suffered an ankle injury during Tottenham's warm-weather training camp in Dubai on Sunday.
Defoe broke down during a session in Al Ahli's Rashid Stadium where Spurs were training as part of their five-day break between matches.
It is unclear how long the striker will be out of action for, but the club will hope that the injury is not a recurrence of the ankle ligament damage that ruled him out for eight weeks following England's 3-1 win over Switzerland in September.
Defoe is yet to score in the league this season but news of his injury is still a blow to Redknapp due to the fact that he is already without several key players through injury.
"Defoe has an injury again. He's had a problem with his ankle before and it didn't feel too good," Redknapp said in Dubai-based newspaper The National.
"We're trying to finish in the top four and it's so close. But we've got so many players injured, people forget.
"We've got Tom Huddlestone, Younes Kaboul, Ledley King, [Jonathan] Woodgate, [Gareth] Bale, [Rafael] Van der Vaart.
"If you could pick a team of injured players it would be a fantastic team."
Tottenham will return to England on Wednesday ahead of their Premier League match at Wolves on Sunday.
Another of the club's injured players, Vedran Corluka, is expected to be out for two months, which will give Alan Hutton a chance to stake his claim to be the club's first-choice right-back once more.
The Scot's last game for Spurs came a month ago when he needlessly barged into Clint Dempsey in the penalty box to gift Fulham their second goal in the Cottagers' 4-0 rout over their neighbours.
Hutton was rumoured to have had a dressing-room bust-up with Redknapp following the match at Craven Cottage, but Redknapp insists he has not fallen out with the former Rangers man.
Redknapp said: "Alan had a groin strain, but he's fit now. I changed it after Fulham; I brought Corluka back in and we went and won four games on the spin, went to Milan and won. But that's football: now Charlie [Corluka] is injured, so Alan's got a chance to get back in the team."
Tottenham followed up their momentous 1-0 win at the San Siro with a sub-par performance in a 3-1 defeat to Blackpool seven days later.
The result put a serious dent in the club's ambitions for a top-four place, leaving them two points ahead of Chelsea having played one more match.
Redknapp admits the defeat at Bloomfield Road was a big blow for his side, but has urged them to bounce back this weekend.
He said: "We had been playing so well and everything just went wrong on the day. But we have to come back from that now."
