Destiny Udogie has been left out of Italy's latest squad as a precautionary measure following his recent injury, football.london understands.

The 20-year-old Tottenham full-back impressed for his country in his first two appearances, coming off the bench in the 4-0 win against Malta last month and then starting against England at Wembley. There was the widespread expectation that the left-back would be included in Luciano Spalletti's squad this month for their final two European Championship qualifying matches against North Macedonia and Ukraine.

However, Udogie was left out of the senior squad and U21 squad, causing widespread confusion in the Italian media and then Spalletti confirmed when asked about the young defender's omission at his press conference this week: "Destiny Udogie is not here because he is injured — that was not my technical decision."

That led to fears among Spurs fans that the former Udinese wing-back was another name to add to the growing injury list at the club that already contains long-term absentees such as James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Manor Solomon, Ryan Sessegnon and Ivan Perisic, with Richarlison also out for a month as he recovered from groin surgery.

However, football.london understands that Udogie's absence is due to the injury he suffered in the Premier League against Fulham last month, which led to him missing the victory at Crystal Palace. He was fit enough to return to face Chelsea, lasting only 55 minutes before picking up a second yellow card to be sent off.

Ange Postecoglou had said ahead of that game: "Destiny is still working his way through it – not ruled him out yet. It’s a 50-50 situation at this stage as to whether he’ll be available."

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That red card meant he missed the defeat at Wolves on Saturday through suspension and now as a precaution Udogie will miss Italy's games this fortnight to ensure he recovers fully from his muscle injury in the coming weeks. Tottenham return to action on November 26 at home against Aston Villa.

Postecoglou is excited about the future Udogie has at Spurs and what he is capable of.

"When I got the role I had a look at all the players who were out on loan last year and Destiny was one. I really liked his profile. Physically he's got outstanding attributes but he obviously played a different style of football in terms of a lot of times he was used as an attacking wing-back," he said earlier in the season.

"He made a real impact in a tough league as a young man. Serie A is a tough league. He handled himself really well and it was one of those where as soon as we got him in I could see that he wants to improve every day.

"He's got outstanding attributes and for a 20-year-old he's already had some really big challenges defensively and he's handled himself so well. When he has the ball and he runs forward he looks exciting. I'm really pleased to have him in the group."