Tottenham’s Nabil Bentaleb is Out for Six Weeks

Nabil Bentaleb suffers another injury, but truth be told, Tottenham have been better without him this season.

The cat is finally out of the bag. What was initially reported three days ago has finally been acknowledged by Tottenham on their official site today.

Related Story: Did Tottenham Lose Two Players to Season-Ending Injuries?

“The expected recovery and rehabilitation is likely to see him return to training in approximately six weeks.” are the words to describe the 21-year-old’s recovery timeline. Down below is just a tweet, confirming the injury.

Nabil Bentaleb suffered the knock during an Under-21 match between Tottenham and Leicester at the King Power Stadium on Friday, March 18.

Despite Spurs coming away victorious with a 3-0 win, losing the Algerian international was a blow.

Over on Tottenham’s official site, the match report gave a brief snippet of Bentaleb being taken out of the game shortly after he attempted a shot when Leicester’s goalkeeper, Ben Hamer, came running down to interrupt it.

"Nabil Bentaleb then saw his effort charged down as we kept the early pressure on before we found the opener on 14 minutes. Miller’s corner was repelled as far as Sonupe on the edge of the box and Harrison stuck out a leg to steer the winger’s drive past goalkeeper Ben Hamer.Bentaleb was forced off injured moments later with Joe Pritchard coming on in his place."

Simply based on assumption, it would appear that Nabil Bentaleb and Ben Hamer collided with one another, but the midfielder would take a huge blow to his left knee.

The actual injury itself was never revealed. But not that it mattered when the main worry now has been revealed — that being, Bentaleb is out of action for six weeks.

There’s still hope that he can return to the squad before Tottenham takes on Southampton (May 7th) and the final fixture of the season against Newcastle United on May 15th. But with his current form and season being marred by injury, it’s best to just shut Bentaleb down for the rest of the campaign and get him ready for next year.

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Nabil Bentaleb’s 2015-16 season as a whole has been a lost cause.

It’s uncertain why the Algerian international’s form took a nose dive, but what is certain though is that he never got around to overcoming it.

A loss in form combined with injuries is practically a disaster for a footballer.

Perhaps contract talks at the end of last season on July 6, 2015, had something to do with it? Even though both parties resolved their differences before the new league year actually began.

Maybe it had something to do with Eric Dier playing in his spot during pre-season?

Because what looked like a shoe-in to return as Mauricio Pochettino’s starting defensive midfielder quickly dissolved as Nabil Bentaleb had to fight for his place as one of the team’s starting eleven players once again.

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Whatever the case may be, right now, the next thing for Nabil Bentaleb outside of recovering from this latest injury setback — another one after missing three months of football because of an ankle injury — is where does he fit in Tottenham’s plans from here on out?

Is Nabil Bentaleb still a part of the future moving forward or is it time to cut ties with the 21-year-old youth academy product who looked promising just a year ago?