Championship star Maddison set to spark summer scramble

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Bengaluru, May 11: Championship star James Maddison is all set to spark a £25million summer scramble for his signature after being told by the doctor that his knee injury is not as bad as first feared.

Norwich's highly-rated young midfielder was resigned to missing out on a close season switch to the Premier League after suffering damaged ligaments in the Canaries' 5-1 thumping at Sheffield Wednesday four days ago.

The 21-year-old was formerly told that he could expect to be sidelined for six months which would have scuppered his chances of sealing a big-money move to the top-flight before the start of next season.

Newly crowned champions Manchester City, along with Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Southampton and Brighton are queueing up to snare the England Under-21 international.

However, Liverpool have been his admirers since a long time now and it was thought that he would be joining the Merseyside club in the summer. But recent reports of the Reds being linked with the likes of Nabil Fekir, Christian Pulisic, Ousmane Dembele, Ruben Neves, Amadou Diwara have somewhat overshadowed the story but the Reds are still likely to be hot on the youngster's trail.

Maddison's long list of suitors must have thought that they would have to shelve plans to snap him up until November after he hobbled out of Hillsborough on crutches and wearing a knee brace.

But now their hopes of pushing through a relatively quick deal have been boosted by the news that Maddison will be fit in eight to ten weeks and back in training by mid-July.

Maddison put pen to paper on a new four-year contract last June, but is keen to quit Carrow Road following City's failure to win promotion this term.

Despite his 15 goals for them, the Canaries couldn't even make the play-offs, and now Maddison wants to test himself at the highest level with a move to the Premier League which would see him quadruple his wages.

Maddison began his career at Coventry in 2013 and moved to Norwich three years later. He immediately returned to the Sky Blues on loan and also spent the 2016-17 season away at Aberdeen in Scotland. Since then, he has never looked back and could soon grace the Premier League.