Explained: Why three Tottenham stars did not receive Europa League medal on the pitch after Manchester United triumph

Son Heung-min, Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur were not handed medals as Tottenham players queued to receive them on the Bilbao turf, with all three celebrating on the pitch with the trophy without them. UEFA later offered an explanation.

UEFA explained that due to the number of injured players participating in the ceremony, they ran out of medals to award to every member of the playing and coaching staff. Lucas Bergvall, James Maddison and Timo Werner were among the players to have been ruled out of the game but still queue to be handed a medal, with UEFA only bringing 30 out onto the pitch despite clubs being allowed to be presented with 50.

UEFA said: "To our great displeasure, we did not have enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremony presentation due to an unexpected discrepancy in the player count, as more team members - including injured players - participated in the ceremony than initially anticipated. The missing medals were promptly delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincerest apologies for the oversight."

Tottenham complete their Premier League campaign against Brighton on Sunday, before aiming to assemble a squad that can compete in the Champions League next season.