Maddison: Dog Walking, Spanish TV Shows & Missing Football

- James Maddison speaks to LCFC TV while following the Government's COVID-19 guidance to stay at home
- The England midfielder reveals how he is spending his time with activities ranging from dog walks to fitness regimes 
- Maddison also underlines the importance of continuing to follow the instructions designed to protect the NHS

Like his Foxes team-mates, the England international is following Government guidance to remain at home as part of the nation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, as well as engaging in fitness programmes provided by the Football Club, Maddison, 23, revealed how he is keeping busy during a difficult time for everyone.

"I'm doing all good, as well as I can," City's No.10 told LCFC TV this week. "Obviously it’s tough and strange times for everyone at the minute, but it is what it is.

"You’ve just got to get on with it and stay at home, obviously, and follow the guidelines and stuff. I’m just cracking on with stuff at home really.

 "It’s important that we keep fit, so we’ve obviously been getting sent the individual programmes off the sports science and the conditioning team at Leicester.

"For the first time in my life, I’m actually trying to do more exercise than what I actually need to do because there’s nothing else to do. I’m trying to fill time slots.

"I’ve obviously got my dog as well, so I have to walk him obviously every day. It’s little things around the house… as much as I can to keep myself occupied to be honest.

"I’ve just got to keep myself occupied and stuff. Having a dog… they call it a man’s best friend, don’t they? He’s been loving having everyone around."

Not enjoying the unique bond which exists between team-mates has been one of the biggest changes for Maddison to acclimatise to, but he says the internet is helping them stay in touch. 

"That’s one of the things I’ve missed the most actually to be honest because you build up friendships with your team-mates that you can’t necessarily build in other workplaces," he continued.

"You go through so many highs and lows together. You’re always in it together. You always get the same goals together and you build up friendships that are like… you see them every day.

"Think about that, every single day, I see them, all week, and I’m missing seeing them every day.

"I miss the banter at breakfast, I miss just the general chat, I miss obviously playing with them, working hard for them, training, all the fun stuff, the hard stuff.

"You just miss everything and times like this, obviously, make you realise you should never take the little things for granted, you know. I look forward to seeing them whenever that will be. 

"I’ve been on FaceTime, I’ve been bombarding the WhatsApp group chat that we’ve got with footy trivia and stuff like that, just to keep the lads occupied, keep in touch.

"A few FIFA games against a few of the lads and stuff too, so yes, I'm trying to keep in touch as much as possible and obviously making sure that they’re all okay and healthy and stuff as well."

A pause in the football calendar, brought about by the suspension of the Premier League in March, has also allowed Maddison to reflect on his achievements at the Club to day.

Since joining Leicester in 2018, the former Norwich City midfielder has become an established top-flight footballer, as well as becoming a senior international with England.

On his time at the Club to date, he said: "It's been brilliant. It’s gone better than I could ever have imagined to be honest.

"If I think back four years ago, I was on loan at Aberdeen from Norwich and now I’m playing every week in the Premier League and that’s all I always wanted to do.

"Sometimes stuff like this can make you really reflect and be proud of myself that I’ve got to this level and obviously look forward now.

"It’s not ideal, but this will give us time to reflect on what’s happened, whereas normally you can only think about what’s forward because it’s the next game… where are the next points coming from?

"It’s been a whirlwind two years and I’ve loved every second of it. I feel right at home at Leicester. I feel like part of the furniture already and I love it here.

"I love the lads, I love the fans, [we’ve got] a great manager, so I’m very, very happy."

Recalling his fondest memories as a Fox, Maddison continued: "I’ve got two. My Premier League debut, which I’ll never forget, at Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams, under the lights, on Friday Night Football.

"I remember thinking, when we went to walk out on the pitch, before the game, and seeing the Sky Sports crew and all the cameras.

"You’d never get that many cameras in the Championship, so as soon as I saw the cameras, I was thinking: are they all for this game?

"It was just a crazy, surreal feeling to walk out at Old Trafford on my Premier League debut and that’s a moment I’ll never forget.

"And the other one has to be the 9-0 at Southampton because I’m not sure I’ll ever play in a game where I win 9-0 again! That was just crazy.

"Everything we touched just turned to gold and even Chilly (Ben Chilwell) was on the scoresheet! You know it’s going to be a good day when Ben’s bagging!"

When asked which TV boxsets have been keeping him engaged during the break in football, Maddison followed Ricardo Pereira's lead by highlighting Money Heist, a Spanish drama dubbed into English. 

"I actually put a tweet out, I think it might have been yesterday or the day before, about the main character from Money Heist," he added. "I’ve just finished Money Heist series four.

"It’s actually a Spanish programme, but you can watch it with English voiceover, so sometimes every now and again, you will notice how it’s timed out, but you can look past it because the series is so good.

"If you get into it, wow, you can really rattle out the episodes because it’s one of them that you just can’t turn it off, so if anyone watching hasn’t watched it, I’d recommend Money Heist. Ricky's got good taste!" 

Finally, Maddison was also keen to reiterate the message of his team-mates by emphasising the importance of following Government guidelines in response to COVID-19.

By staying indoors, the Foxes midfielder says people around the region will be helping to protect the NHS and allowing them to save lives.

"It’s as simple as that, yes," he said. "People might be getting bored of hearing people say it, but it’s what we have to do, it’s what we have to say, because staying inside is saving lives.

"I don’t think you can actually underestimate the importance of that. Listen, we all want football back.

"We just spoke about football for 10 minutes and the more we listen to the guidelines and the protocols, the more chance we have of getting football back.

"Not just that, obviously [it’s] saving lives and health. We’re doing everything we can to give the National Health Service every possible chance to try and get this under control by staying at home.

"It’s something so simple, just stay inside, listen to the guidelines, follow the protocol and hopefully this can all be over soon."