After Leicester’s 1-0 loss to Bournemouth on Saturday, Leicester City midfielder James Maddison appeared to be devastated during a post-match interview.
He subsequently deleted his Twitter account shortly afterward.
During the game, the England international made a significant mistake in the 40th minute by sending a wayward backpass that gifted Philip Billing possession deep inside Leicester’s territory.
Philip Billing gratefully accepted the gift and scored the game’s only goal, causing the Foxes to fall deep into relegation trouble.
Only seven years ago, Leicester surprised the football world by winning the Premier League, despite beginning the season as 5000/1 underdogs.
The Foxes currently do not have a manager after Brendan Rodgers was sacked following a 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace last weekend. They have now lost seven of their last eight top-flight games, and the harsh reality of their situation is starting to sink in for both fans and players.
After the defeat on Saturday, which left the East Midlands club in 19th place, Maddison looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders as he faced the Sky Sports cameras for a post-match interview.
You can check out the interview for yourself below.
🗣 “Tough one to take. Very low as you can imagine.”
James Maddison reviews a big loss to Leicester City and their fight for survival pic.twitter.com/Jt7Ybu086v
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) April 8, 2023
“Yeah, yeah, really tough one to take,” he admitted, while hardly glancing up from the floor.
“Very low at the minute, as you can imagine. We knew it was a big game, we didn’t try to dress it up as anything else. It was a massive game, and one we really wanted to win, and we worked really hard this week to try and win.”
The bitter disappointment of the defeat was evident in the 26-year-old’s voice as he reflected upon the ‘sloppy’ error that had cost his side the game.
“I made a sloppy mistake, with a sloppy pass, in the first half, and it cost us, so yeah, very low at the minute.”
Quizzed on how he expected his side to react to such a potentially damaging defeat against fellow relegation strugglers, Maddison said: “Be sad today and tomorrow then get going again Monday.”
Maddison deletes his Twitter account after Bournemouth defeat
Clearly not in the state of mind to be dealing with a torrent of abuse from trolls on social media, Maddison deactivated his Twitter account soon after the interview was conducted.
The loss means that the 2016 Premier League winners are now just two points above bottom of the table Southampton, and two points below safety.
Bournemouth are now three points clear of both Everton and Nottingham Forest, who are currently 17th and 18th, respectively, in the tightest relegation battle in some time.
Maddison was heavily linked with Newcastle United earlier in the season and will no doubt be very popular in the transfer window, whether Leicester stay up or not, but won’t want a relegation on his CV.