James Maddison Reflects on a Challenging Year and Football Comeback

James Maddison sits down, smiles and exhales. Then he sums up the last 12 months of his life in one blunt phrase.

“In the trenches.”

The Tottenham Hotspur midfielder is talking about home, not the pitch. Five children aged four and under. Two sets of twins. A serious knee injury that ripped him away from football and left him watching Spurs’ relegation battle with a machine strapped to his leg.

It is all laid bare in the opening episode of the new series 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’s YouTube channel and the BBC Sport website and app. Kelly Somers’ first guest on Saturday, 22 August, is a 29-year-old who has lived a year he calls “the toughest of his life”.

A year lost – and a family gained

Maddison’s season effectively ended last August when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament. The injury wiped out most of his 2025-26 campaign and forced him into the long, lonely grind of rehab.

Away from the training ground, life exploded.

During his recovery, his partner gave birth to their second set of twins. The house turned into organised chaos.

“A lot of nappies flying about, a lot of accidents at home, but it'll all be worth it,” he says, half laughing, half shaking his head at the memory. “We still love it. I wouldn't change it for the world.”

The injury could have swallowed him. Instead, he says the pregnancy and the demands at home became a lifeline.

“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 tells Somers.

He clung to that. It gave him a reason to look beyond the physio room and the swelling and the slow steps back to running.

When Dad stops being a footballer

The most jarring moment came from his eldest son, Leo. Maddison missed a full year of football. For a three-and-a-half-year-old, that might as well be forever.

“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,” he says.

Leo forgot what life with a footballer dad looked like. At one point, Maddison explains, his son thought he had actually left Spurs.

“He couldn't even remember over a year ago when he was at all the games,” Maddison says. The thought clearly stings.

Now, as his comeback gathers pace, he is fixated on one simple picture.

“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 from the sofa

While Maddison fought his own battle, Tottenham were fighting for their Premier League status. A club that talks about Champions League nights found itself staring at the drop.

Spurs survived only on the final day, finishing two points above the relegation zone. Maddison could do nothing but watch.

“We probably struggled a little bit for creativity and I'm watching the games thinking, 'what would I be doing there?',” he says. The playmaker, sidelined, saw spaces and passes that no one on the pitch could quite find.

That helplessness bit hard. A fit Maddison is usually the man tasked with unlocking packed defences. Instead, he was reduced to a frustrated spectator, reading games he could not influence.

De Zerbi arrives and loosens the knot

Then came a jolt of energy. Roberto De Zerbi took over in March and, almost immediately, the mood around Tottenham Hotspur Stadium began to shift.

“He's very clever. He's very tactical. He's obsessed with football, you can see that,” Maddison says.

Yet the Italian’s first moves were not about detailed pressing triggers or complex build-up patterns. They were about joy.

“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,” Maddison explains. “He just wanted us to get the love back for playing football.”

So De Zerbi did something simple, and very deliberate. He took the squad out.

One of his first acts was to organise a team meal – with alcohol firmly on the menu.

“We’re all going to be drinking alcohol, we're all going to be having a good night,” Maddison recalls him telling the players.

The message was clear: relax, reconnect, remember why you enjoy this.

“He wanted us to have a night where we all just relax,” Maddison says. “That feeling that we got made everyone feel more knitted together, straight away.”

It was a reset button for a group that had been playing with fear.

On the bench in slippers

De Zerbi’s man-management did not stop with nights out. He also made a point of pulling Maddison back into the fold before the midfielder felt ready.

Another early decision was to name him on the bench.

“I was almost like, 'I'm not ready to play yet, boss',” Maddison admits.

De Zerbi’s reply cut through any hesitation. He told Maddison he could sit on the bench “in my slippers” if he wanted. The point was not minutes on the pitch. It was presence.

“He just wanted me around the group and he thought that would benefit the group,” Maddison says. “I took that as a massive compliment and just acted as if I was part of the bench, part of the team.”

The dynamic changed. Maddison was no longer the isolated injured star. He was back in the dressing room, back in the huddle, back in the fight.

“I'm not saying that's the reason why,” he adds, “but we managed to steer clear of the danger, which was a good feeling.”

Spurs stayed up. The trapdoor closed behind them. Barely.

Eyes on a clean slate

Maddison finally made his return on 11 May, against Leeds. It was a symbolic step, but Tottenham have refused to rush him. He has not been risked in pre-season so far.

He sounds impatient, but controlled. Determined, not desperate.

“I'm working so hard to try and be fully fit and available for the majority of the season,” he says.

There is no talk of easing himself in, no soft targets. He knows exactly what he wants.

“I want just a fully fit, healthy season where I can just enjoy football,” he says. “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.”

Five young children at home. A rebuilt knee. A club that has stared at the abyss and stepped back.

If Maddison gets the season he craves, how far can he drag Spurs away from that edge?