James Maddison Opens Up About His Toughest Year

James Maddison jokes that he has been "in the trenches" at home. It does not sound like much of an exaggeration.

Five children aged four and under. Two sets of twins. A serious knee injury. Almost an entire season lost. One of the Premier League’s most inventive midfielders has been fighting a very different kind of battle.

The Tottenham playmaker opens up on The Football Interview, which returns on 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. In the first episode of the new campaign, Kelly Somers sits down with Maddison, who is finally emerging from what he calls "the toughest year of his life".

A torn ACL and a house full of toddlers

Maddison’s season effectively ended last August. A ruptured anterior cruciate ligament wiped out almost the entire 2025-26 campaign for the 29-year-old, who watched from the sidelines as Spurs slid towards the relegation scrap.

While he was rehabbing his knee, life at home exploded into controlled chaos. His partner gave birth to their second set of twins.

"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.

It sounds anything but calm.

"A lot of nappies flying about, a lot of accidents at home, but it'll all be worth it," he says. "We still love it. I wouldn't change it for the world."

The injury stole a year of his career. At home, it altered something else.

Maddison reveals his eldest son Leo, now four and a half, briefly thought his dad had left Tottenham altogether.

"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. "He couldn't even remember over a year ago when he was at all the games.

"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 wrestled with rehab and fatherhood, Spurs lurched through a grim season. They survived only on the final day, finishing two points above the relegation zone.

For a player who built his reputation on unlocking defences, being reduced to a spectator was torture.

"We probably struggled a little bit for creativity and I'm watching the games thinking, 'what would I be doing there?'," he admits.

He could only sit, strapped to a recovery machine, as his team-mates fought to keep the club in the division.

De Zerbi’s reset: tactics, togetherness and a team night out

The mood began to shift in March with the arrival of Roberto de Zerbi. The Italian, renowned for his tactical edge and intensity, walked into a club drained by months of anxiety.

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

Yet De Zerbi’s first move was not to drown the players in detail.

"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. He just wanted us to get the love back for playing football."

So the new head coach started somewhere simple: a team meal. No lectures, no video analysis. Just a night out.

The message, as Maddison tells it, was clear. "We're all going to be drinking alcohol, we're all going to be having a good night."

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

De Zerbi also made a point of involving his injured playmaker. Even when Maddison felt nowhere near ready.

Back on the bench, back in the fold

Another early decision from De Zerbi was symbolic. He put Maddison on the bench.

"I was almost like, 'I'm not ready to play yet, boss'," Maddison recalls.

The response was blunt. The Italian told him he could sit there "in my slippers" if he wanted. The point was presence, not minutes.

"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.

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

Maddison finally made his return on 11 May against Leeds. A small step on the pitch, a huge one mentally. He has not been risked in pre-season yet, but the tone of his conversation is not of doubt. It is of intent.

A fit Maddison, a different Tottenham?

Now comes the next challenge: turning survival into something more stable, and doing it with Maddison back at the heart of things.

"I'm working so hard to try and be fully fit and available for the majority of the season," he says. "I want just a fully fit, healthy season where I can just enjoy football."

The belief in his own impact has not dimmed.

"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."

Spurs have already learned how fragile life near the bottom can be. The question now is what a rejuvenated Maddison, out of the trenches and back on the grass, can do to drag them somewhere very different.