James Maddison's Toughest Year: From Injury to Family Chaos
James Maddison leans back in his chair and laughs when he calls it “the toughest year of my life”. The smile tells one story. The detail tells another.
A ruptured anterior cruciate ligament last August wiped out almost all of his 2025-26 season with Tottenham Hotspur. At home, he and his partner were plunged into a different kind of chaos: five children aged four and under, including a second set of twins born during his rehab.
“We’ve been in the trenches,” he admits to Kelly Somers in the opening episode of The Football Interview, which returns to BBC One at 12:45 every Saturday during the Premier League season and is also available on BBC iPlayer, BBC Football YouTube and the BBC Sport website and app.
“In the trenches” at home
While his team-mates chased points, Maddison chased normality. The 29-year-old swapped packed stadiums for a house full of nappies and night feeds.
“I needed that positive distraction of my partner being pregnant and having to be there for her and forget about myself, even though I was going through a traumatic experience through my knee,” he says.
The reality was messy.
“A lot of nappies flying about, a lot of accidents at home, but it'll all be worth it,” he says. “We still love it. I wouldn't change it for the world.”
Yet the long absence created a strange gap for his eldest son, Leo. Football, for a four-year-old, moves fast.
“I missed a year of football, and a year in a child's life – from three and a half to four and a half – it's obviously massive,” Maddison explains. “He couldn't even remember over a year ago when he was at all the games.
“It would be nice for him to come to the games again and actually remember Dad playing instead of just Dad sat at home watching him with a machine on his knee.”
Watching Spurs suffer
While Maddison wrestled with rehab and family life, Spurs flirted with disaster. They survived only on the final day, finishing two points above the relegation zone.
From his living room, with that “machine” strapped to his knee, he could only watch.
“We probably struggled a little bit for creativity and I'm watching the games thinking, ‘what would I be doing there?’” he says.
For a player who thrives on being the creative spark, that sense of helplessness bit hard.
De Zerbi changes the mood
The mood around Tottenham Hotspur Stadium shifted in March when Roberto de Zerbi arrived. Maddison’s description of the Italian is blunt and admiring.
“He's very clever. He's very tactical. He's obsessed with football, you can see that,” Maddison says.
Yet De Zerbi’s first move was not to drown the squad in detail.
“When he first came in – in comparison to pre-season and what we're training now – he didn't want to make it too complicated. He just wanted us to get the love back for playing football.”
So he did something simple: he took them out.
One of his earliest calls was to organise a team meal. No strict diets. No dry tables.
The 29-year-old recalls De Zerbi telling the players: “We're all going to be drinking alcohol, we're all going to be having a good night.”
Maddison understood the message.
“He wanted us to have a night where we all just relax,” he says. “That feeling that we got made everyone feel more knitted together, straight away.”
Back on the bench, slippers if needed
De Zerbi’s man-management went further. Even when Maddison was still some way from playing, the head coach wanted him back in the matchday picture.
Another early decision was to put him on the bench.
“I was almost like, ‘I'm not ready to play yet, boss’,” Maddison says.
De Zerbi’s response was clear. He told his midfielder he could come on the bench “in my slippers” if he wanted. The point was not minutes. It was presence.
“He just wanted me around the group and he thought that would benefit the group,” Maddison explains. “I took that as a massive compliment and just acted as if I was part of the bench, part of the team.
“I'm not saying that's the reason why, but we managed to steer clear of the danger, which was a good feeling.”
Maddison finally made his return on 11 May against Leeds. The club have not risked him in pre-season so far, but his eyes are fixed firmly on what comes next.
A fit season – and a warning
“I'm working so hard to try and be fully fit and available for the majority of the season,” he says. “I want just a fully fit, healthy season where I can just enjoy football.”
There is no false modesty about what that would mean.
“Because if I'm fully fit and I'm healthy, then I know what I'm capable of. And I know that I can affect games more than a lot of players in this league. So, let's just hope for that.”
For Spurs, who stared over the edge last season, the question is simple: what does a fully firing James Maddison do to the shape of their year?
