Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli is planning to appeal against his FA charge for posting a social media video mocking a man of Asian appearance and the coronavirus outbreak.

Alli has until 5pm on Thursday to make a final decision and if he opts to appeal he will be granted a personal hearing, where he will be able to make his case to the FA.

If he appeals, Alli hopes to avoid a ban by arguing that the video was a misguided joke and not shared on a public forum.

Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva was fined £50,000 and banned for one match in November for a tweet about team-mate Benjamin Mendy, but Alli believes his case is different because he posted the video to a closed Snapchat group.

The video was copied and sold to a national newspaper, with Alli said to be unsure who was behind the leak. He has twice apologised and believes the FA should acknowledge the video's intended audience, as well as his immediate contrition, when deciding a punishment.

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An independent FA commission will decide the outcome of the case in the next ten working days. Spurs can scarcely afford to lose Alli for any length of time, with the midfielder last night continuing as a False No.9 in the FA Cup defeat to Norwich while Harry Kane and Heung-min Son are sidelined.

Despite the defeat, defender Jan Vertonghen has told his team-mates they still have plenty to play for this season. Spurs lost on penalties at home to the Canaries in the fifth-round, leaving them without a win in four matches in all competitions.

They are still fighting to finish in the Premier League’s top four, though, and go into the second-leg of their last-16 Champions League tie at RB Leipzig next week 1-0 down.

And Vertonghen, who opened the scoring for Spurs last night, said: "We have other things to play for, still top four or top five, whatever you want to call it and the Champions League, a big tie on Tuesday. We still have everything to play for in the Champions League and we know we can turn it round.

"Obviously the form is not there but we have the quality. These games with extra time they are not helping us but hopefully we can find the spirit to turn the form around and I am sure we will.

"We don't keep enough clean sheets so we concede too many goals. It is not just now, not just last week it is since the start of the season, even more than a year ago we started to concede too many goals. It is a problem we need to solve.

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"It is not really losing shape, it is more like circumstances of conceding play at too many goals. I am not going to say crazy things but it is a problem we know we are having and we need to solve."

Vertonghen looked rejuvenated at left-back against Norwich, having been close to tears when he was substituted early in the second half in the fourth-round win over Southampton.

"It was more disappointment with my performance that day, I feel a lot of confidence from the manager and I am very thankful for that," he said. "I was very happy with my goal, it was a big relief and I really wanted to win this game in this competition. Still very happy where I am."

Spurs boss Jose Mourinho believed his side “deserved to win on 90 minutes and on 120.” “I’m so sad for the boys but I don’t criticise, I just can’t,” he said. “The boys, they gave what they have and what they don’t have. Some reached the limit."