James Maddison demands Tottenham injury investigation after relegation scare
James Maddison has urged Tottenham Hotspur to investigate their “astronomical” injury record after the club narrowly avoided Premier League relegation on the final day of the season.
The 29-year-old recently recovered from an anterior cruciate ligament tear to feature as a substitute in the final three matches of the campaign.
His timely return helped the North Londoners secure domestic survival with a crucial 1-0 victory over Everton.
However, the playmaker insists the sheer volume of physical setbacks at the club must be urgently reviewed.
Key absentees hinder survival bid
Tottenham were without several crucial first-team figures for extensive periods of a punishing season.
Swedish winger Dejan Kulusevski has been sidelined since May following a severe challenge from Marc Guehi.
Meanwhile, attacking duo Dominic Solanke and Mohammed Kudus were unavailable for half of the league campaign.
The recent cruciate ligament injury suffered by Dutch international Xavi Simons further complicated their battle against the drop.
‘Worse than any other club’
“Our situation with the injuries has been worse than any other club,” Maddison stated.
“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.”
The England international acknowledged that some incidents, such as his own severe knee issue or the heavy knock taken by Kulusevski, are purely coincidental.
“That’s not the medical team, that’s not the pitch or all the theories that you see, sometimes that’s rubbish,” he added.
Impact on league position
Despite winning the Europa League last season, the squad’s depleted options dragged them into a desperate fight for Premier League survival.
Midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was another high-profile casualty, missing three months of action.
Maddison is adamant that a fully fit squad would have comfortably avoided a relegation dogfight.
“We’ve been a bit unlucky,” the former Leicester City man continued.
“But like I said, the big names that we’ve missed, it does affect you and you can’t just deny that.”
“If you had had them for the whole season, we wouldn’t have been in this situation, I strongly believe.”
“That’s just not me being naive, that’s just a fact. But it is the situation we find ourselves in, and I am just proud of the lads to dig deep today.”