James Maddison Returns to Action for Tottenham
James Maddison finally pulled on a Tottenham shirt again on Sunday, ending a near year-long wait for a first start as Spurs stepped up their preparations for the new Premier League season with a behind-closed-doors draw against Hoffenheim.
The midfielder had not featured at all over the summer, still dealing with an unspecified issue that lingered after the anterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered in pre-season last year – a blow that wrecked most of his campaign. With just a week left before Roberto De Zerbi’s side kick off at Brentford, the fear was growing that their chief creator would be watching the start of another season from the treatment room.
Instead, his name appeared on the teamsheet.
Maddison back, but a rusty return
Spurs fielded an entirely different XI to the one that had swept aside the same Bundesliga side 3-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, when Mikey Moore struck twice and Richarlison also scored in front of home fans. This time the venue was Hotspur Way in Enfield, the stands empty, the focus squarely on fitness and rhythm.
Maddison lasted 45 minutes. His first start in almost 12 months was always going to be about minutes rather than magic, and it showed.
Early on, he lost the ball inside his own box and then fouled Leon Avdullahu. Adam Hlozek stepped up and buried the penalty to give Hoffenheim the lead. Maddison mixed neat touches with the odd loose moment before making way at half-time for youngster Reiss Elliot-Parris, job done in terms of workload if not sharpness.
Fernandes lays down a marker
If Maddison’s return was the headline, Mateus Fernandes quietly wrote a compelling sub-plot.
Tottenham’s £85million summer signing from West Ham completed the full 90 minutes, an important step after a calf issue on the club’s pre-season tour of New Zealand and Australia had disrupted his start. The Portuguese international looked ready.
He dictated passages of play and delivered the kind of quality Spurs paid for, most notably with a pinpoint cross that brought the equaliser. From a short corner routine, Fernandes whipped the ball into the six-yard box, where Ben Davies arrived to nod home from close range on 20 minutes.
Spurs then flipped the game just before the break. Pape Matar Sarr, also making his return, drove through midfield and fed highly rated winger Luca Williams-Barnett. The teenager took aim and drilled his finish past Luca Philipp, a confident strike from a player pushing hard for more senior minutes.
Hoffenheim hit back as Spurs search for a winner
The second half never quite settled. Hoffenheim found their response when Valentin Gendrey met a cross with a volley that beat Brandon Austin to level the match again.
The visitors almost went in front as Kevin Danso rattled the crossbar, a reminder that this was no gentle training exercise. At the other end, teenage winger Miracle Adewole came close late on as Spurs pressed for a winner that never arrived.
For De Zerbi, the performance mattered less than the list of players ticking off valuable minutes. Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur both returned to action, while Williams-Barnett and summer recruit Lucas Bergvall Souza were among the youngsters and fringe players to get time on the pitch.
Fitness boosts – and fresh worries
The sight of Maddison and Fernandes back in the thick of it will encourage supporters. So will the involvement of Bentancur and Sarr after their own issues. But the absences are impossible to ignore.
Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie and Mohammed Kudus did not play a single minute in pre-season. With Brentford looming, that is a glaring concern for a side expected to build its identity around a high defensive line and aggressive transitions.
Dejan Kulusevski is only just returning to training after the knee injury that has kept him out since May 2025. Dominic Solanke missed out again on Sunday. In goal, Guglielmo Vicario was also absent and is expected to leave before the summer window closes on September 1, leaving another key position in flux.
Wilson Odobert and Xavi Simons remain long-term absentees. Pedro Porro, meanwhile, sat out the entire pre-season schedule after Spain’s World Cup triumph and subsequent holiday, though he has now reported back to the club.
So Spurs leave their final tune-up with a mixed picture: key creators edging back to fitness, a record signing already influencing games, but a spine of the side still either missing or short. In seven days’ time, Brentford will not care about caveats.
