Tottenham may have to do without Gareth Bale for Thursday's crunch clash against Chelsea after manager Harry Redknapp revealed the pacy winger is struggling with an ankle injury. 

Bale sprained his ankle during training on Friday and missed Sunday's 1-0win over Sunderland at White Hart Lane. 

The Londoners felt Bale's absence dearly as they lacked the pace and penetration the Welshman offers in devastating fashion down the left flank, and they received another blow when Aaron Lennon had to come off in the first half with a suspected hamstring tear.

The England winger will have a scan on the injury and will definitely miss Thursday night's derby, while Bale is also a doubt. 

Redknapp said: 'Bale has sprained his ankle. He just did it in training. He thought it was okay, then he went home had a little rest and couldn't put any weight on it.' The Spurs boss is more confident about Jermain Defoe's chances of being available. 

The striker also sat out the win over Sunderland, which came courtesy of a Roman Pavlyuchenko strike, because of a hamstring problem but should be available for the game against the Blues. 

'Lennon has got no chance for Thursday. It'll be weeks if it's a tear,' Redknapp said. 

'There's every chance Defoe will be fit. He's only got a grade one tear and he's desperate to play, the little fella.'
Sunderland went back to Wearside unlucky not to have taken a point in what was Martin O'Neill's second game in charge. 

The Black Cats dominated parts of the first half and would have scored had Brad Friedel not saved well from Kieran Richardson and Sebastian Larsson. 
O'Neill's tenure at the Stadium of Light started well after his team came from behind to snatch a victory against Blackburn, but the euphoria around Sunderland soon made way for disappointment after it emerged that Nicklas Bendtner and Lee Cattermole had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. 

'I have spoken to them,' O'Neill said of the duo, who both started the game on the bench. 
'What you have to do is wait for legal process to run its course.'

Spurs’ run of 10 wins and a draw have included four clean sheets and 28 goals which has seen them climb up to third in the league and given them confidence to push for the title.

Bale has also been in spectacular form, bagging five goals and four assists in 13 games so far, and the Welshman believes it is the hard work behind him that allows him and the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor and Rafael Van Der Vaart to steal the headlines with their goal scoring exploits.

"I just think we've got the balance right," Bale told Spurs' official website.

"We've Scott Parker in the team now and he covers every blade of grass, closes everyone down and gives us that security in midfield.

"Younes (Kaboul) and Ledley (King) have been great, (goalkeeper) Brad (Friedel) and the full-backs have been playing well and that gives us front five the licence to attack as much as we can and that has got us the goals."

Spurs have conceded only eight goals during their winning spell, while the attacking unit have bagged 29 goals, and Bale believes the fact that all aspects of the Tottenham team are firing at the moment has contributing to their record-equalling run of form.

"We're all playing with so much confidence at the moment," he added.

"Even if we're on the back foot or teams are attacking us, we've got the pace to hit them on the counter-attack," added Bale. "It's good to have that in our armoury."