Former Tottenham Hotspur winger Andros Townsend has claimed that the club’s medical department has ‘not been good enough’ for the past 15 years. His remarks follow James Maddison‘s call for a full investigation into Tottenham’s alarming injury record.
The midfielder has been sidelined for the bulk of the campaign after sustaining an ACL injury during pre-season.
He made his comeback as a substitute in the closing matches of the season as Spurs narrowly secured Premier League survival on the final day. A 1-0 victory over Everton saw them retain their top-flight status at West Ham’s expense in a nerve-shredding finale.
Maddison was far from the only injury casualty throughout the campaign, with six key players absent from the squad for the match against the Toffees.
“People try and say, ‘Oh, but we’ve got this and that’. But ours is astronomical and we need to look at why that is.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live, Townsend reflected on his own spell at Spurs, pulling no punches in sharing his views.
“I left Spurs in 2015 and that was the case 11 years ago as well. The medical department hasn’t been good enough for the last decade and a half,” he said.
When pressed on whether it was the quality of care, expertise or staffing levels that fell short, Townsend responded with: “Everything you just mentioned.”
When asked by Joe Hart what makes a good medical department, he said: “Knowledge, protocols.
“Like you said, many players go outside for second opinions, and when the second opinion from the expert is completely different to what your medical department is saying, time and time again, on a consistent basis, then that raises questions about the quality you have at your own club.”
He later added: “I’ve had many conversations with medical staff in and out of football, it’s not their fault. The budget, they’re not allocated a budget to build a first class medical department.
“You’re signing players for £50, £60, £70-odd million and then you’re not giving the budget to the people tasked with taking care of those players.
“So then you’re spending all of that money, Dominic Solanke, for example, Spurs spent £60 odd million on him, he spent most of the season injured, because you’re not spending the money, some of the budget on the medical team to be able to facilitate someone like Dominic Solanke, and I think that’s the biggest problem.
“Everywhere I’ve been it’s been the biggest problem that the clubs are not giving the budgets to the medical departments to equal the value of the player they’re signing.”