Ange Postecoglou has confirmed that James Maddison is fit to make his Tottenham return for Friday’s FA Cup clash with Manchester City.
Maddison has not featured since suffering an ankle injury during the Premier League defeat to Chelsea on November 6, curtailing an impressive opening few months in a Spurs shirt for the summer signing.
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The midfielder had scored three goals and laid on five assists in 11 league appearances before his setback and his return is a huge boost to a Spurs team missing Yves Bissouma and Son Heung-min to international commitments.
Spurs host holders Manchester City in a huge fourth round tie on Friday night and Postecoglou provided an update on his squad at his pre-match press conference.
“Team news wise, everyone from the last game, has got through well. We gave them a few days off, which I think was good for them.
“And, yes, since the return [James Maddison] is back training with the group, which is good. So he’s feeling good.
“It’s great to have Madders back and Micky [van de Ven] and [Cristian] Romero are back and have had good training weeks. It just helps our ability to prepare for the challenges ahead.
“We have been through a difficult period. We have still got some absentees but I think that even with those, our performances have been at a good level and the players were really embracing what we are trying to do. We have set ourselves up now for a strong finish to the league season and a good cup run.
“Specifically, for him [Maddison], the creative part there aren’t too many in the league that are like him and we had to sort of cover that absence in different ways. [Dejan] Kulusevksi played in there, Gio [Lo Celso] stepped in there and scored some goals for us. Our front three have really picked up and have got goals from set-pieces.
“The beauty of that is that when Madders comes back in, it’s not just reliant on him, whereas at the start of the season we were maybe a little bit more reliant on him. We found out through this period that we don’t have to be, but having him in there certainly adds to that as well.”
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