The club and England captain was hurt in the last minute of Sunday’s defeat 1-0 by Manchester United at Wembley. He could be out until March and will miss both legs of the Champions League second round tie against Borussia Dortmund.

A club statement said: “Following preliminary assessments, we can confirm that Harry Kane has damaged ligaments in his left ankle, sustained during Sunday’s match against Manchester United.

“The striker will continue to be monitored by our medical staff as he commences rehabilitation and is expected to return to training in early March.”

Kane has scored 21 goals in 36 games in all competition and his absence will be a further blow to Spurs’ hopes of keeping up with the Premier League’s top two.

The London club are currently five points off second placed Manchester City and nine behind leaders Liverpool.

Kane first suffered ankle trouble in a 1-0 Premier League win over Sunderland in September 2016 – where he scored the winner. He fell awkwardly in the final few minutes and scans revealed ligament damage.

He ended up missing 10 Tottenham games in total, also missing an international break and returned for a 1-1 draw at Arsenal on November 6.

Spurs had a mixed time without him, winning the first four games of his absence, including a 2-0 success over Manchester City, but then things went south as they lost two and drew four of the next six – a run of games which saw them knocked out of the League Cup and suffer damaging results in their Champions League group campaign.

In March 2017 he suffered a repeat problem in the early stages of the 6-0 FA Cup win at Millwall in March 2017. He tangled with Jake Cooper after getting a shot away and was unable to continue.

Fears were that he would be out for a similar period to his absence earlier in the same season but he only missed three Spurs games, all of which resulted in wins. He returned as a substitute against Watford in early April.

One year later Kane had to limp off against Bournemouth after being caught trying to turn the ball into the net. However, he missed only one Tottenham game, along with two England matches as he returned for the away win at Chelsea.

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