Injury expert reveals shocking timeline for James Maddison to get back to his Tottenham best
Injury expert Ben Dinnery has shed light on how likely James Maddison is to get a significant amount of minutes at Wolves and how long the Tottenham midfielder could take to return to his best.
The 29-year-old has not played any competitive football since picking up an ACL injury last summer in South Korea.
However, to the pleasant surprise of Spurs fans, Maddison made the matchday squad against Brighton last week after returning to training a couple of weeks ago.
Reports indicate that the England international could get some minutes for Tottenham against Wolves on Saturday, with the Lilywhites desperate for a win in their quest to avoid relegation.
Injury expert does not rule out James Maddison starting matches for Tottenham soon
Ben Dinnery, an injury expert and founder of the widely-renowned Premier Injuries website, has admitted that the expectations on the attacking midfielder should be low, given that he has been out of action for almost nine months.
He explained that players are usually eased into proceedings when they recover from serious knee injuries, but he did not rule out the 29-year-old being risked from the start soon by Roberto De Zerbi, given Tottenham’s precarious position.
When asked whether Maddison can have a key role to play in Tottenham’s final run-in, Dinnery said (via Football.London): “As far as the medical department, the sports science department and everyone involved in his recovery and rehab, James Maddison is in the best possible physical place to be able to contribute to the team.
“The next question is, does Roberto De Zerbi believe that James Maddison can start a game and contribute to the success of Tottenham from the first minute, or is James Maddison in a place where realistically we’re looking at him being an impact player from the bench?
“Ideal scenario, you’re doing that careful reintegration, you’re maybe doing some bounce (warm-up) games, some under-21 games, you’ll maybe be doing 10, 15 or 20 minutes coming off the bench for the first team and then you’re gradually building it up.
“However, given the demands and the pressure and the limited amount of time Tottenham have to try and maintain their Premier League hopes, then nothing would surprise me! It is whether or not they feel Maddison can contribute from kick-off for 45 minutes or for 60 minutes.
“James Maddison is a leader, players will be looking up to the likes of Maddison for that moment of brilliance and is he capable of doing it in a one-off moment in games? Absolutely. It is just those levels of consistency optimally over long periods.”
Maddison is not expected to return to his best until next season
However, Dinnery made it clear that Spurs fans should not expect to see Maddison at his best until next season.
He explained that the attacking midfielder needs a full pre-season under his belt and a run of matches before he returns to his pre-injury performance levels.
Dinnery added: “Being involved is great, but what you’re looking at for James Maddison is a really good and solid pre-season being under his belt. If he gets a few minutes between now and the end of the season, and he makes one or possibly two goal contributions and Tottenham stay up, great and everyone is a winner.
“Ultimately, you’re looking towards the 2026-27 season for James Maddison to really start to perform regularly at somewhere near those pre-injury levels and it could even be beyond and in the 2027-28 season before he is back, hopefully, to pre-level (form).”
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