Ian Wright has spotted the one problem with James Maddison as a footballer 

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Ian Wright has lauded James Maddison as an ‘exceptional’ player but feels the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder picks up too many injuries.

James Maddison was enjoying a brilliant start to life at Tottenham after his £40 million move from Leicester City over the summer.

The 27-year-old racked up three goals and six assists in his first 11 Premier League games for the club.

But the Englishman hasn’t featured since early November after picking up an ankle injury in the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea.

Maddison is closing in on a return this month and could even be involved in Tottenham’s FA Cup fourth-round clash against Manchester City next Friday.

Yet, Ian Wright believes Maddison would be ‘even better’ if it wasn’t for his injury record. 

Wright has spotted one problem with Maddison

Speaking on The Overlap’s Stick to Football, Wright lauded Maddison as a brilliant midfielder but raised concerns about his recent injury record. 

“He’s exceptional in that position for me,” the Arsenal legend said. “The only problem he’s having is that he keeps picking up these injuries.

“He’s missing games but that has nothing to do with the fact he’s not a very good player. If he was playing more frequently we would probably see even better performances from him.”

Maddison has picked up a range of injuries since moving to Leicester back in 2018. But the midfielder was quite unfortunate that his worst one yet came early on in his Spurs career. 

The Englishman was ruled out for 72 days and missed 11 games during the 2020/21 campaign at Leicester with a hip injury.

If he returns to action against City next week, he will have been sidelined for a total of 77 days. 

Nevertheless, over the past five seasons at the King Power Stadium, he has racked up at least 30 appearances in the league every year. 

While he is prone to picking up a minor injury, you would hardly say his injury record is a major cause for concern.