Why James Maddison's injury is devastating for football after Gary Neville's rant

Whatever your opinion on Gary Neville, he has an incisive take on almost all footballing matters. And one take that cut deep was when he looked back on a mind-numbing Manchester derby last April and labelled Premier League players ‘micro-managed and robotic’.

He was right. Which is why it will not only be Thomas Frank and Tottenham Hotspur who will miss James Maddison while he makes a long recovery from his latest injury.

It will be the Premier League, it will be the Champions League, it will be the neutrals. It will be television viewers and it should be Thomas Tuchel.

In these days when footballers’ riches are spoken about in every medium, in every bar, in every stadium, drawing any level of sympathy for a top player’s plight is tough. You know the response - ah well, they earn enough.

It is not like they are down the mines, or on the front-line. They can chill out and count their cash.

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But it is hard not to feel for Maddison. My dealings with him have been relatively fleeting but in every interview, he has been engaging, funny, often self-deprecating.

One of those interviews was in Doha ahead of Qatar 2022 and it was the first media event at England’s camp. It was the first and, arguably, the best, Maddison’s infectious character lighting up the room. He even appeared to genuinely enjoy the darts match against a member of the press.

He said his World Cup call-up was a ‘pinch me’ moment. He said it would be a dream to contribute in any sort of way.

It then turned out a knee problem would mean Maddison did not make a single appearance at the tournament. After an ankle injury interrupted his 2023-24 season, Maddison was then cut from Gareth Southgate’s provisional squad for the Euro ’24 finals in Germany.

“Devastated doesn’t cut it,” Maddison said at the time. There is still time for Maddison to add to his seven international caps - the last of which was as a substitute against Bosnia and Herzegovina in a friendly in June of last year - but it would not surprise you if we don’t see him in an England jersey again.

It would be sad but it would not surprise you. Tuchel spoke to Maddison soon after starting his short-term gig as England manager and if the 28-year-old Spurs midfielder can get back onto the pitch next spring, then perhaps he could make a case for being included in the German’s final party.

But the reality is that the chances of Maddison going to the World Cup next summer are as good as gone. Even if he does get a couple of months’ action for Spurs, they would have to be a VERY special couple of months.

He would have to be out of this world. Because after all, as Neville implied, modern football - even at international level - appears to have little room for the maverick, for the larrikin, for the mercurial talent.

The toll, physical AND mental, taken on players who suffer serious injury should never be downplayed. And the injury suffered by Maddison is, sadly, not uncommon, Chelsea’s young defender Levi Colwill suffering the same anterior cruciate ligament injury ahead of the season’s start.

Football and its followers should wish them both well. It is a rewarding business, elite football … but it can also be a brutal one.

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