James Maddison has apologised to the Coventry City fans for his goal celebration on Monday night.
Maddison opened the scoring for Tottenham Hotspur in their 3-1 win with a beautiful curling effort. It was his first start in 526 days after a serious knee injury and came against his first club from his hometown.
Maddison posted a picture alongside Coventry fans, holding up their shirt, on Tuesday to explain his actions while he celebrated.
“I had already planned my first goal back,” he said via social media. “I was kissing the badge of this club who has supported me and my family through the darkest days of my career over the past 18 months.
“I absolutely adore and love Coventry City. All my close friends and family know that.
“I’m a fan and always will be and I will 100% apologise to anyone who thought the timing was bad as my first goal back just happened to be against my hometown club.
“Good luck to Frank [Lampard] and the boys for the rest of the season.”
Maddison helped Tottenham claim their first Premier League win of the season, rising them from the foot of the table.
Omar Marmoush and Ben Davies were also on the scoresheet on a night which saw Dejan Kulusevski make his own long-anticipated comeback from a knee injury.
– Dejan Kulusevski explains why he is ‘different’ after Tottenham injury hell
– Tottenham left to mull cost of win over Coventry despite James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski returns
– Maddison scores in ‘dream’ return as Spurs get 1st PL win of season
Maddison had returned from a damaged anterior cruciate ligament in April and had made a series of substitute appearances but started for the first time since against Coventry.
“Even though they’ve brought in a lot of attacking talent, he will still think no one’s better than him because he’s that type of character,” pundit Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports about Maddison.
“He has that football arrogance that I like in players.
“It will be interesting to see where he fits in eventually because there are a lot of players at Tottenham in the attacking positions, especially with Kulusevski back.”
