James Maddison has brought up Spurs' injury problems as one of the reasons behind their struggles this season.
Former Tottenham Hotspur winger Andros Townsend has said that the medical department at the club has ‘not been good enough’ for the last 15 years. The comments come after James Maddison ’s call for an investigation into Tottenham’s poor injury record.
The midfielder has been out of action for the majority of the season after suffering an ACL injury during pre-season.
He made his return as a substitute for the final matches of the season as Spurs scraped Premier League survival on the final day. A 1-0 win over Everton saw them stay up at West Ham’s expense in a nail-biting final day.
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Maddison wasn’t the only injury blow throughout the season, with six key players missing from the squad for the game against the Toffees.
"Our situation with the injuries has been worse than any other club," Maddison told reporters .
"People try and say, 'Oh, but we've got this and that'. But ours is astronomical and we need to look at why that is.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live, Townsend recalled his own time at Spurs, and didn't hold back on his thoughts.
“I left Spurs in 2015 and that was the case 11 years ago as well. The medical department hasn’t been good enough for the last decade and a half,” he said.
When asked if it was quality of care, expertise or the number of staff on the team that made them not good enough, Townsend replied with: “Everything you just mentioned.”
When asked by Joe Hart what makes a good medical department, he said: “Knowledge, protocols.
Like you said, many players go outside for second opinions, and when the second opinion from the expert is completely different to what your medical department is saying, time and time again, on a consistent basis, then that raises questions about the quality you have at your own club.”
He later added: “I’ve had many conversations with medical staff in and out of football , it’s not their fault. The budget, they’re not allocated a budget to build a first class medical department.
“You’re signing players for £50, £60, £70-odd million and then you’re not giving the budget to the people tasked with taking care of those players.
“So then you’re spending all of that money, Dominic Solanke, for example, Spurs spent £60 odd million on him, he spent most of the season injured, because you’re not spending the money, some of the budget on the medical team to be able to facilitate someone like Dominic Solanke, and I think that’s the biggest problem. Everywhere I’ve been it’s been the biggest problem that the clubs are not giving the budgets to the medical departments to equal the value of the player they’re signing.”