A look at the injury records of all the teams in the Premier League last term, including the interesting comparison between Manchester United and Manchester City.
They may have been almost inseparable at the top of the table last season but the two Manchester clubs, City and United were poles apart in a different table last season.
As the new season kicks off Manchester United have completed a quite amazing transfer in bringing in last season’s Premier League star performer Robin Van Persie from traditional rivals Arsenal.
But Van Persie’s injury record is a worry and brings me back to the original point. Last season Manchester United had the worst injury record in the league losing 1681 days to injured players whilst bottom of the league sat City with just 186 days. Here is the full table.
Manchester United 1681
Tottenham Hotspurs 1450
Arsenal 1343
Newcastle 1258
Fulham 1245
Queens Park Rangers 1105
Bolton 1054
Norwich 968
Sunderland 956
West Bromwich Albion 868
Aston Villa 806
Blackburn Rovers 801
Liverpool 794
Swansea 759
Everton 716
Wolverhampton Wanderers 690
Stoke City 557
Wigan Athletic 474
Chelsea 356
Manchester City 186
Statistically Manchester City players had a much speedier recovery time from muscular injuries then United and it is clear to see that major injuries did cost United, possibly, the title.
So did injury cost United the league or have City simply developed better physio regimes and adapted better sports science to their players and in the search for new signings?
Other injury statistics include
- Spurs suffering 24 separate injuries since having a 10 point lead over Arsenal in mid-February.
- Injury may have cost Bolton their Premier League survival with long term injuries to several of their star players.
- A grand total of £139,319,362.12 was spent on injured players last season.
- And the most common footballing injury was, expectedly, hamstring injuries which accounted for 46.5% of all muscular injuries last season.
So going into the new season teams that should be alarmed for the opening day are Arsenal, who currently top the league with 9 injuries including long term absentee’s Jack Wilshere, Emmanuel Frimpong, Bacary Sagna and Tomas Rosicky.
Aston Villa currently have 8 injured players with Marc Albrighton, Gabby Agbonlahor and Richard Dunne the most serious not to mention club captain Stilyan Petrov’s continued recovery from acute leukaemia.
Then there is Newcastle; who have 6 players currently injured including Cheik Tiote, Fabricio Colocinni, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba and Hatem Ben Arfa; although some could return for the opening fixture.
So how important are injuries going to be in this campaign and based on their importance, should United of signed RVP?
All information provided via Physio Room who you can check out online here…
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