Son Heung-min will undergo surgery after his head injury which puts a major doubt over his fitness for the World Cup.
Tottenham striker Son suffered a fracture near his left eye during their Champions League win in Marseille on Tuesday night.
South Korea star Son will face a race against time after the operation which will be done to “stabilise” the injury but the club are not putting a time scale on the recovery and stress it will depend on rehabilitation.
The Tottenham statement said: “We can confirm that Heung-Min Son will undergo surgery to stabilise a fracture around his left eye.
“The South Korea international suffered the injury during the first half of Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League victory at Olympique Marseille.
“Following surgery, Son will commence rehabilitation with our medical staff and we shall update supporters further in due course.”
Son suffered severe swelling after being caught by an elbow and the injury leaves Tottenham short on forwards ahead of Sunday’s clash with Liverpool with Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski also missing through injury.
But there was a warning from concussion charity Headway who are campaigning for temporary substitutes and insist football is not dealing with the issue.
Liverpool’s James Milner also went off with a head injury in their Champions League tie with Napoli while Aston Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez suffered a blow to the head last weekend.
Son - who was pictured after the game with swelling to his face - may well have not been concussed and there is no suggestion any of the club medics are not following rules but Headway say football’s lawmakers need to change guidelines on head injuries.
Luke Griggs, Interim Chief Executive of brain injury charity Headway, said: “The assessment of players for potential concussion remains extremely challenging for medics.
“They are not helped by football’s continued and unjustifiable reluctance to introduce temporary concussion substitutes that would enable extended assessments in the quiet confines of a dressing room, away from the intense atmosphere of the pitch.
“We have repeatedly warned football of the risk it is taking with the short and long-term health of players. This should be a concern not only for elite-level players who are being allowed to return to the field of play potentially concussed, but we should all be concerned by the impact this is having on grass roots and youth players who follow examples they see on their screens.
“‘If in doubt, sit it out!’ is supposedly at the heart of concussion protocols in all sports. And yet too often we see teams fail to take that approach. Instead, the approach seems to be ‘let’s see how they get on for the next 15 minutes’, during which time they risk exacerbating the effect of the initial injury.
“Football’s stubbornness to accept the clear evidence that has emerged in recent years can no longer be tolerated.
“We need the introduction of temporary concussion subs in all competitions but more importantly we need to see a change in attitude from IFAB, UEFA, FIFA when it comes to brain injury in football.”
