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Thomas Frank has made a change to his Tottenham Hotspur squad for the coming Champions League matches with an attacker coming in
Thomas Frank has taken advantage of a UEFA loophole to bring Mathys Tel into his Champions League squad in place of the injured Dominic Solanke.
Solanke has not started a match this season for Tottenham due to an ankle problem which has dogged him since the summer. He came off the bench for three games in August but required a minor procedure in October as the pain continued and the 28-year-old England international has still not returned to training with the squad.
In his initial Champions League squad Frank had to leave out £30million summer signing Tel, along with a string of injured players, as Tottenham were over the limit of the 22 players they can register due to a lack of homegrown locally-trained players.
However, a UEFA rule that allows a team to bring in a squad substitute if a player has been ill or injured for 60 days has allowed Spurs to make the change, but it can only be done up until the sixth game of the group phase, which falls this week with the game against Slavia Prague.
You cannot normally change an association trained player for a non-locally trained player, but Spurs have been able to register the four required association trained players in Djed Spence, Archie Gray, Ben Davies and Brennan Johnson, which allows Solanke to move into the main group, so he can be replaced by Tel. The UEFA rule suggests that Solanke can come straight back in for Tel when he returns to fitness.
Frank admitted at his press conference on Monday that he would have changed his squad initially if he had known what was to come with Solanke.
"Of course if I knew back then what I know now I maybe would have changed the decision, no doubt about that," said the Dane. "Of course it is something we can have into consideration if you can change one player, what is the timing and when is the other player back? It is also a decision in terms of some of the long-term injuries, when can they be back? And we also need players fit and available so we have enough players to shoot with from the bench.
"I think it is definitely some consideration we have [to bring in Tel], with the players we have available to make sure we have the most possible weapons to fire with."
Here is the full UEFA Rule that has allowed Tottenham to make that change:
"Long-term injury or illness of an outfield player: during the league phase until matchday 6 included, the club concerned may temporarily replace a maximum of one outfield player and register a new outfield player. The club must complete the official registration of List A with the replacement player, who must have been registered with the club in accordance with Paragraph 30.01 to Paragraph 30.06 before the deadline for List A referred to in Paragraph 31.09(e) (i.e. 2 September 2025 - 24:00 CET).
"An injury or illness of an outfield player is considered long-term if it lasts at least 60 days as of the day the injury or illness occurred. If the outfield player recovers before the end of this 60-day period, the player remains nonetheless not eligible to participate in any UEFA club competition (i.e. UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League or UEFA Conference League), until the end of such period. If the replaced outfield player was registered as a club-trained player or an association-trained player, the quotas for club-trained players or association-trained players must be fulfilled with the replacement.
"The club must provide UEFA with the necessary medical evidence in one of UEFA's official languages. Before confirming the replacement, UEFA may require further medical examination of the outfield player by an expert appointed by UEFA at the club's expense.
"Once the injured or ill outfield player is fit to be fielded again, he becomes eligible and/or can resume his position in place of his substitute, who must consequently be removed from the list. The return of the original outfield player must be announced to the UEFA administration at least 24 hours before the next match in which the original outfield player is due to play."
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