Tottenham playmaker James Maddison is expected to miss the majority of the coming season after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which requires surgery.
Maddison went down off the ball around 10 minutes after coming on as a substitute in Tottenham’s 1-1 friendly draw with Newcastle in Seoul on Sunday.
In a statement, Spurs confirmed: “We can confirm that James Maddison will undergo surgery for a ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in his right knee.
It was Maddison’s second pre-season appearance after his 2024-25 season was curtailed by a knee injury he suffered in the first leg of Spurs’ Europa League semi-final victory over Bodo/Glimt in May.
Head coach Thomas Frank said the initial impression was that Maddison suffered an injury to the “same knee he had the previous injury in” and that “it looked like a bad injury”.
The playmaker made 45 appearances for Tottenham last season and was also ruled out for around two-and-a-half weeks in January and February through a calf issue.
Europa League champions Spurs face Bayern Munich in a friendly on Thursday, before the UEFA Super Cup against Paris Saint-Germain on August 13. The north London club’s Premier League campaign gets underway against Burnley three days later.
‘A devastating blow for Maddison and Spurs’
Analysis
This is a devastating blow for Maddison and Spurs.
In the second half of their 1-1 draw with Newcastle United on Sunday, the midfielder attempted to tackle Anthony Elanga but did not make contact with the winger. He started limping on the touchline with his head in his hands, dropped to the floor and then rolled back onto the pitch.
Everybody immediately knew it was a serious injury and this was only confirmed when he left the stadium on crutches. Maddison missed the Europa League final through injury and has spent the summer rebuilding his fitness ahead of the new campaign.
Throughout pre-season, Frank has experimented with a 4-2-3-1 system and Maddison would have slotted in perfectly as the No 10.
Sunday’s game against Newcastle was only his second appearance in pre-season following a cameo in Thursday’s victory over Arsenal as Spurs’ medical team carefully managed his load.
After missing out on Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White and with Dejan Kulusevski recovering from his own knee injury, Maddison could have started the campaign as Frank’s first-choice.
He is one of the senior members of the dressing room and his experience would have been crucial following the departure of captain Heung-min Son. Instead, Maddison will probably miss the majority of the season.
His chances of breaking back into England’s squad ahead of next summer’s World Cup in the United States, Canada, Mexico will now be extremely slim. Maddison’s fitness struggles over the last couple of years will raise concerns that his body cannot cope with the physical demands of playing in the Premier League and European competition multiple times a week.
Spurs were already reeling from Gibbs-White signing a new contract with Forest and deciding on their next steps.
Now, rival clubs know they will be desperate to sign a playmaker and can bump up the price of Spurs’ transfer targets. Frank will now be pushing for sporting director Johan Lange, CEO Vinai Venkatesham and chairman Daniel Levy to act quickly and decisively in the transfer market to this huge setback.
(Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)