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Thomas Frank has urged UEFA to revise their Champions League rules after Tottenham sporting director Johan Lange raised concerns at a Premier League meeting. Whilst Spurs languish in 14th place in their domestic ahead of their weekend trip to Burnley, their European campaign has painted a starkly different picture.

Frank's men can secure their spot in the round of 16 with victory at managerless Frankfurt on Wednesday. However, one source of frustration has been the squad regulations in European competition, particularly those relating to injured players. Those sidelined for 60 days can be replaced until they regain fitness, and Spurs had brought in Mathys Tel to cover for Dominic Solanke ahead of last month's victory over Slavia Prague.

Yet, with Solanke's return to fitness, Frank was forced to inform Tel that he had been dropped from the squad prior to the midweek triumph against Borussia Dortmund.

"Of course he was disappointed. That's natural. I completely understand him. He's disappointed but he's been very professional. He's a strong character," the Dane said.

The Tottenham head coach believes that the enlarged European competitions, featuring eight fixtures in the league phase, have not been accompanied by modernised regulations, as players are stretched to breaking point by the relentless calendar of domestic, European and international fixtures.

"I think UEFA need to modernise those rules. When they made the rules we had six group games, now we have eight," he said.

"Before, we had no games in January. A lot of the group stage was done after four games. Now with the new format you need to fight until the end, more or less, every team.

"We also have gone up from three to five substitutions, that means you use more players. The matches keep creeping up.For the Euros and the World Cup (we have) bigger squads, so we need to look into it. Also the changes we can do after January [for the knockout stages], it's only three. I can't see why that shouldn't be more, why you can't change during if you have injuries.

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"We're not the only club struggling with this, definitely not. I know Johan brought it up to the Premier League meeting last year. That's something that we need to look into which would have helped the situation with Mathys,".

Tel is expected to return for the trip to Turf Moor, as is Pape Matar Sarr, who has returned from Senegal's triumph at the Africa Cup of Nations. The 23-year-old was one of several players who fell ill during the final against Morocco and had to be hospitalised, but has now returned to training at Spurs.

Frank cast doubt on Yves Bissouma leaving in this winter transfer window despite his contract having only six months left, and did the same for Tel, who has been linked with a loan return to France but has started four of Spurs' past five matches.

"It's fair to say we have not that many players!" said the Spurs boss. "[Bissouma] is a good player and did very well against West Ham. He's a Tottenham player.

"No [more moves out]. The players we have we need to keep, to have enough players to play with and perform with."