{"id":654611,"date":"2026-05-20T15:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654611\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:14:10","slug":"james-maddison-delivers-catastrophic-for-my-career-warning-amid-tottenham-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/654611\/","title":{"rendered":"James Maddison delivers ‘catastrophic for my career’ warning amid Tottenham hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder has been open about the club’s problems this season and his own state of fitness in the final weeks of the season<\/p>\n

11:39, 20 May 2026Updated 11:44, 20 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Maddison has returned for Tottenham Hotspur in the past nine days but has urged caution about his recovery<\/p>\n

James Maddison admits it would be “catastrophic” for his career if he doesn’t follow specialist advice and pushes himself too hard during Tottenham’s relegation battle.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old has finally returned to action for Spurs<\/a> in the last nine days after a long battle back from the anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered in his right knee last summer. After nine-and-a-half months out of the game, Maddison<\/a> made his return against Leeds last week with 20 minutes of football in that 1-1 draw and then on Tuesday night at Stamford Bridge, he played 28 minutes of the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maddison looked more like his old self against the Blues despite his rustiness, linking up play and having a big late chance blocked by the sliding Jorrel Hato that could have grabbed the point to keep 17th-placed Spurs in the Premier League next season.<\/p>\n

Some such as Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy have called for the Tottenham midfielder to play more and be risked by Roberto De Zerbi<\/a>, especially with the club facing a tense final day game against Everton at home to save themselves, but Maddison has made it clear that he can only help as much as he can.<\/p>\n

“Anyone who has worked in football or has been through this injury, it is not as easy just to drop back in,” he said when asked by Sky Sports how many minutes he can play on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“It would be catastrophic for my career if something was to happen and we weren’t safe or if we didn’t follow the protocols from the specialist, but obviously I want to help the team as much as I can so let\u2019s see where we get to.”<\/p>\n

Maddison knows he will be a long way short of his best right now after so long out but is trying to help a Spurs side shorn of most of its key creative options with Dejan Kulusevski, Xavi Simons, Mohammed Kudus and Wilson Odobert all long-term absentees and Dominic Solanke missing recent matches with a hamstring issue.<\/p>\n

“Obviously I\u2019ve been out for a long time so I\u2019m not going to be at my fluid and fluent best, but I feel good and I’ve just got to try and help the team with whatever minutes I can,” said Maddison. “I’ve obviously had a massive injury, so it’s one of those where you have to respect the injury a little bit and that’s probably why I am not starting games, but I’ve been out for a little while and I am going to do what I can on Sunday. I did tonight, it wasn\u2019t enough but we\u2019ve got to keep trying and keep battling for our fans.”<\/p>\n

FOLLOW OUR TOTTENHAM FB PAGE! Latest Spurs news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n

On the responsibility that falls on his shoulders as a senior attacking player, he added: “That’s my job and that’s what I am paid to do. I’ve had a massive injury which has meant that I haven’t played this season, but whenever I do play, that’s my job and as attacking players, that’s what we’ve got to do.<\/p>\n

“We probably haven’t been good enough going forward this season, that’s the reality. It’s a bit of a lack of quality in the final moments and I think that showed [against Chelsea]. I think that is something I can bring, so hopefully when I\u2019m on the pitch and whatever minutes I can get, I have just got to try and help the team with that.”<\/p>\n

Maddison made it clear that the fact that Spurs have got themselves into this position exactly 12 months after winning their first trophy in 17 years is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to give everything for this club, for the badge and for our fans. It is unacceptable and a little bit embarrassing that we’re in this position as Tottenham Hotspur but it’s the reality unfortunately and it\u2019s up to us to get out of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Sunday is going to be a big day. We’re going to need everyone, we’re going to need our fans who were absolutely unbelievable [at Chelsea]. Even at 2-0 down you could just hear them and I genuinely think we\u2019ve got the best away support in the league. We need to repay them with a good performance and some points on Sunday to secure Premier League survival.<\/p>\n

“It’s non-negotiable. We have to [get over the line] for this club.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder has been open about the club’s problems this season and his own state of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[260554,45765,137460,403,99,17654],"class_list":["post-654611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-chelsea-vs-tottenham-hotspur","tag-james-maddison","tag-roberto-de-zerbi","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-spurs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}