Tottenham news as James Maddison is pulled out of England squad after being named in Gareth Southgate’s initial group
Tottenham have announced that James Maddison will not be part of England’s squad for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers after his injury picked up against Chelsea. The 26-year-old was named in Gareth Southgate’s group for matches against Malta and North Macedonia next week.
A statement from the club confirms that he will instead remain at Hotspur Way for rehabilitation with the Spurs medical staff instead. Maddison was taken off just before half-time on Monday with his side level at 1-1 in a fiesty London derby.
Southgate had indicated on Thursday that there were some concerns in the group that he named but Maddison hadn’t been specifically referenced by the England boss. “Some of those, we could lose one today after a scan, we could lose one tomorrow,” he said.
Southgate also picked Jude Bellingham, Callum Wilson and Bukayo Saka, all of whom are doubts for the two upcoming games with their own knocks. “I don’t really know [who will be available],” he continued.
“You’d be amazed at how complicated it is picking a squad because all clubs are of course sensitive to information and you’re trying to piece everything together. So I couldn’t be certain that everybody that is in that squad will be there on Sunday night [when the squad reports for duty], varying levels of doubt.
“With that Callum is probably the biggest level of doubt, Callum Wilson, but equally I’m pretty confident that the others can get through and they’re all keen to be in the squad so that’s a really good sign.”
Maddison was one of two big injury blows for Ange Postecoglou during the 4-1 loss to Chelsea on Monday with Micky van de Ven also being taken off before the break. The Spurs boss said after the game that changes were needed at the time with his side down to ten-men and Maddison’s situation made things easier.
“He [Maddison] got a knock on the ankle,” Postecoglou said. “We were down one man already. It made sense to make a couple of changes at that point.”
Tottenham face Wolves on Saturday lunchtime and will be without Van de Ven, though he won’t need surgery on his hamstring, football.london understands. Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie will also be absent after their red cards.
It leaves Spurs without the core of the side that had taken them to the top of the table after ten games with Maddison being central to that. This now all but rules him out of the clash at Molineux as well.