James Maddison injury: Progress & potential return date for Tottenham midfielder

While they emerged from a 4-1 defeat with some credit left in the bank, Monday night's London derby couldn't have gone much worse for Tottenham Hotspur.

The opening act was Ange Postecoglou's exuberant outfit at their swashbuckling best and Chelsea looked set to receive a thumping on Mauricio Pochettino's not-so-warm homecoming.

Instead, ill-discipline and woeful misfortune turned a potential party into an evening of debating where the manager's sky-high defensive line landed on the courageous/naive continuum. What should be said is that the hosts came close on three occasions to levelling the score at 1-2 despite their two-man disadvantage.

The night concluded with supporters concerned over the club's short-term outlook. Postecoglou will be without Destiny Udogie for Saturday's trip to Wolves and Cristian Romero for their next three games, while Micky van Ven looks set for a prolonged period on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

James Maddison departed the chaotic bout at the end of the first half with an ankle injury and whilst there was initial optimism that he wouldn't be out for long, the injury as worse than first thought.

When will James Maddison return from injury?

Maddison's impact in N17 has been immediate and any sustained absence would be detrimental for Spurs. The Premier League's August Player of the Month has notched eight goal contributions in 11 league appearances at the start of his career in north London.

The England international also played a major role in Tottenham's opener on Monday night, with his sweeping crossfield pass to Pape Matar Sarr eventually leading to Dejan Kulusevski's deflected strike. Across the opening 11 weeks of the season, no Premier League player had been involved in more shot-creating actions than Maddison, boasting 21 more contributions than the next most influential player, Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes.

However, Maddison succumbed late in the first half after going down in the box under no contact, clutching at his ankle before receiving treatment. While Postecoglou said post-match that it was "too early" to decipher the nature of the issue, he hinted at an element of precaution regarding his substitution.

"We were down one man already. It made sense to make a couple of changes at that point," the Tottenham boss explained. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg replaced Maddison and filled in at centre-half as Spurs played the remaining 40 minutes with nine men.

Any hope of a speedy recovery for Maddison from a Spurs perspective was dashed when it was confirmed that the midfiedler has pulled out of the England squad for the final Euro 2024 qualification matches.

"We can confirm that James Maddison has been withdrawn from the England squad due to an ankle injury," Tottenham said in a statement. "The midfielder will not feature in the Three Lions' UEFA EURO 2024 qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia, and will remain at Hotspur Way for rehabilitation with the Club's medical staff."

Things got even worse for Spurs fans went Ange Postecoglou gave his press conference ahead of the weekend's trip to face Wolves.

“Madders is a lot worse than we thought. He came off with an ankle injury, and the next day wasn’t great so we sent him off for a scan. Probably into the new year for him," the coach said. It seems Tottenham fans won't see Maddison back on the pitch until January at the earliest.

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