No Charlton Athletic return for Marcus Maddison – as he considers walking away from football

Marcus Maddison has revealed he is considering quitting football after his loan spell at Bolton Wanderers was cut short.

The midfielder was signed by Charlton Athletic before the start of the League One season but was offloaded in the January transfer window.

Bolton revealed earlier today that they had terminated Maddison’s stay with the 27-year-old struggling with life away from his young daughter.

The South London Press understands the former Hull City and Peterborough playmaker will continue to be paid by Wanderers and that he will not be returning to Charlton Athletic as he would not be eligible to feature.

And Maddison posted a message on his Instagram site which spelled out that he is contemplating walking away from the game.

He said: “Well the football industry has eventually broke me.

“All the abuse, pressures & monotony of the last 2 years has just got to me. I’ve tried to fit in & be happy but if I can’t be happy In a winning team fighting for promotion it’s clearly something deeper.

“I’m returning home to think do I want to play football any more as it just doesn’t bring me any joy at all. I can’t thank Ian Evatt enough for understanding & wish @officialbwfc all the best for the final run in 👏🏼 #football #health #life #bwfc “

Maddison signed for Charlton as a free agent on October 1 and made just eight League One appearances. Former Charlton manager Lee Bowyer had been interested in signing him in the January 2020 transfer window but the South London club were under transfer embargo.

He finally got his man but it failed to work out.

And Bowyer told our paper in February: “I took a gamble on Marcus – against a lot of people saying not to. I tried to improve his professionalism, if you like. But unfortunately it just hasn’t worked out.

“The one thing I do is I demand a certain standard and that goes throughout the whole team. The other thing I demand is that you have to be hungry and proud to play for this football club. So there were certain things that happened that weren’t right.

“No one person is bigger than the club – that includes myself. Players come and players go, managers come and go – that’s football.

“The most important thing for me is that the squad is happy and then you all have to be in this together. We win together and lose together, you can’t afford to carry anyone.”