Injuries over the course of a season

Might be mildly interesting at best for most but I thought it was a bit shocking to be honest (was trawling another forum when I found this).

What is with Man United's physio team and injuries?

Based on physioroom.com, one player injured for one week = one point.

It's been updated.

Manchester United 261
Arsenal 236
Bolton 218
Tottenham 204
Newcastle 169
Sunderland 166
QPR 157
Fulham 141
Norwich 133
Blackburn 122
Aston Villa 116
Everton 110
Wolves 110
West Brom 109
Swansea 101
Chelsea 93
Stoke 76
Liverpool 76
Wigan 64
Manchester City 44

Click to expand...

Is it just bad luck? It's obviously not that we're playing any more games than anyone else. I mean, City have Hargreaves ffs.

This isn't just about United by the way, does the amount of injuries that your team has sustained surprise you in any way?

There's some analysis of the last decades worth of injuries for Spurs, City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, United at Republik of Mancunia. I've copied the tables produced, which show that, over the longer term, United are about average among those clubs for injuries.

The Details

And so, to the details.

1. Number of injuries, by calendar year
United Arsenal Chelsea Liverpool Spurs Man City
2002 36 41 32 27 50 24
2003 60 62 45 48 43 44
2004 66 69 61 43 72 42
2005 41 55 50 49 57 45
2006 51 62 38 45 67 47
2007 50 58 54 32 58 30
2008 54 69 45 27 39 36
2009 71 83 49 47 50 68
2010 60 75 50 53 71 45
2011 65 64 22 40 63 30
Average* 56.63 66.63 49 43 57.13 44.63
Best 41 41 32 27 39 24
Worst 71 83 61 53 72 68



* The Average, Best and Worse figures exclude 2002 and 2011, which are both incomplete years.

2. Number of injuries, by season
United Arsenal Chelsea Liverpool Spurs Man City
2002-2003 74 79 56 44 71 40
2003-2004 50 59 56 53 51 48
2004-2005 56 62 51 47 73 36
2005-2006 46 59 41 39 47 55
2006-2007 49 57 47 40 77 36
2007-2008 52 60 42 32 47 27
2008-2009 61 74 46 31 43 51
2009-2010 66 89 58 58 54 64
2010-2011 60 64 34 54 79 42
2011-2012 40 35 15 13 28 12
Average* 57.11111 67 47.88889 44.22222 60.22222 44.33333
Best 46 57 34 31 43 27
Worst 74 89 58 58 79 64

* The Average, Best and Worse figures exclude 2011-12, which is incomplete.

An analysis of the seasonal data raises a couple of interesting points. First of all, while commonsense might suggest that the rate of injuries increases as we get deeper into a season, the data suggests otherwise. In six of the previous nine seasons, 48% or more of injuries had occurred by this date (December 7), even though a typical season is less than 40% done by then.

Secondly, the average number of injuries suffered by this stage of a season is only 27. We are way above that, with 40. In the period 2002-03 to present, we have never had as many injuries by this stage of a season. Last season, the figure was 32. The season before, it was 36—and both those seasons included the long-term injury to Hargreaves (who hardly counts as a seasonal injury).

3. Types of Injuries
United Average
Ankle 21.5% 19.8%
Knee 18.1% 19.8%
Hip 2.9% 3.1%
Calf 8.5% 7.8%
Shoulder 1.6% 1.9%
Back 2.2% 4.3%
Hamstring 12.8% 12.4%
Groin 7.4% 9.5%

Click to expand...

The full article is here: http://therepublikofmancunia.com/injuries-comparing-united-with-arsenal-chelsea-city-liverpool-and-spurs/

Might be worth a read, though it is obviously from a United fans perspective. (throws up things like Arsenal have consistently suffered double the average amount of shoulder injuries).

Be warned the link may contain swearies though if so they are very sporadic and I don't believe any are used in the article. Best if I say NSFW or for under 16's and let you make your own mind up. I've transposed the key data.

Good god I didn't realise we were that bad!!

Apologies that I haven't read all of the OP but I thought I'd just point out we've had more injuries than anyone, City have had the least and remind me who's top of the table at the moment?

Even if we don't win the league it's still remarkable that we've kept pace with them for this long. Still won't get any credit mind

You can also see that Chelsea have been fairly fortunate wrt injuries in relation to Spurs and Arsenal.

imo we've had a good season numbers wise, not too many injuries at all, however what we struggled with was having about all our FB's out at the same time, then their makeshift replacements also got injured somehow. Messed up our whole style of play.

Meh, a few sicknotes and your numbers change drastically, doing it on a points system just makes it daft really.

Would be a lot more interesting to see something along the lines of players with long term injures who missed more than a month, and players who had injuries of under a week.

Think of it like this, Utd have a player injured in the game on a Saturday, and plays the next Sunday, but that would likely count as injured for a week, so its a bit daft. Likewise Utd have a bigger squad than most, someone gets injured on Tuesday, the player is really quite alright but a bigger risk of further injury when more rest negates the chance of a worse injury, so Utd might rest him for a game or two even though he could quite easily play. Another team with a smaller squad or much less quality in depth might have that same player struggle through a couple games because there isn't a suitable replacement.

THe only thing unsurprising is no matter which way the stats were done, injuries were counted or what kind of squad you had..... Arsenal would always top the list, if only there were silverware for that competition, we would have won so many cups in the past decade

Chelsea have always had a pretty small squad with very little in the way of youth players to pick up the slack in these situations while Fergie has always been happy to give someone a chance, Welbeck, Macheda, the twins.

Tom84 said:

Apologies that I haven't read all of the OP but I thought I'd just point out we've had more injuries than anyone, City have had the least and remind me who's top of the table at the moment?

Even if we don't win the league it's still remarkable that we've kept pace with them for this long. Still won't get any credit mind

Click to expand...

Since when does having an injury prone squad get you credit? You're sounding like an Arsenal fan

We have a few injury prone players and then there are the follow up injuries you always get. We rushed Anderson back when we had one fit midfielder at the time (Carrick) and his knee flared up again, then we brought him back against Bilbao and it was the hamstring injury (a regular occurrence after a knee injury/broken leg.)

It's been that way this season sadly and it's as much of a regular occurrence as watching Man Utd players slipping over (why do we slip so much?) It's just surprising we've been able to hold it all together so well even when we've had key players out injured.

Moses said:

Raw stats like that are fairly pointless, imo. Look at injuries to players who would be definite starters/in contention for starts, if fit, or something.

Click to expand...

We've actually lost De Gea, Lindegaard, Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Smalling, Jones, Fabio, Valencia, Nani, Anderson, Hernandez, Welbeck and Young for extended periods of time this season.

That's not including less senior players like Owen and Cleverley. That's 14 senior players and you can actually make a starting XI that would compete with the best teams in the world.

To think we've lost those players and done so well (in the League) is down to belief and great management. Some may knock Ferguson now for some of his decisions but managing this lot as well as he has, not just in terms of injury, but also quality, is arguably one of his greatest achievements as a manager.

Valencia and TC's long term injury racks up the weeks, before even considering Vidic

While some players are seemingly more prone to injuries, Ive heard (rightly or wrongly) that younger players seem to suffer more in general (maybe from taking time riding / how to take certain players style of tackles?)


Wonder if this should be married up with number of cards issued per season (just from a brief look, 2009 looks like the worst by a good measure across the board)

Tom84 said:

Apologies that I haven't read all of the OP but I thought I'd just point out we've had more injuries than anyone, City have had the least and remind me who's top of the table at the moment?

Even if we don't win the league it's still remarkable that we've kept pace with them for this long. Still won't get any credit mind

Click to expand...

Isn't your squad several players bigger than City's? If so, in terms of numbers of players available to both sides on average each week, you'd be pretty similar.

Absolutely agree, but at times this season we've had to play Carrick at CB because Vidic, Ferdinand, Smalling and Jones were all out injured at the same time. Further more we've gotten by for a good 1/3 of the season (at least) with only 1 fit winger in Nani (who has now been out a month.)

But that's not all, we were down to one fit Midfielder for several games (Carrick) before Scholes came back. That means we had Giggs, Scholes, Cleverley and Anderson all unavailable, so we were playing Rooney in a withdrawn midfield role or Jones in midfield role.

We also had Jones, Smalling and Rafael all out at the same time, which meant we had no available RB's, so we played Valencia back there for 4-5 games.

Each one of those players I listed has missed at least 1 month of the season due to injury. Now take into consideration that the Premier League isn't 12 months long and we don't have a winter break. So yes, we have had senior players missing for extended periods of times during important times of the season with many of those players out at the same time.

jakeke said:

imo we've had a good season numbers wise, not too many injuries at all, however what we struggled with was having about all our FB's out at the same time, then their makeshift replacements also got injured somehow. Messed up our whole style of play.

Click to expand...

I think it speaks volumes that since you've got Sagna, Gibbs and Vermaelen back your form has picked up. Keep those 3 fit next season and add Vertonghen to the mix and Arsenal should do alright next season.

NokkonWud said:

Absolutely agree, but at times this season we've had to play Carrick at CB because Vidic, Ferdinand, Smalling and Jones were all out injured at the same time. Further more we've gotten by for a good 1/3 of the season (at least) with only 1 fit winger in Nani (who has now been out a month.)

But that's not all, we were down to one fit Midfielder for several games (Carrick) before Scholes came back. That means we had Giggs, Scholes, Cleverley and Anderson all unavailable, so we were playing Rooney in a withdrawn midfield role or Jones in midfield role.

We also had Jones, Smalling and Rafael all out at the same time, which meant we had no available RB's, so we played Valencia back there for 4-5 games.

Each one of those players I listed has missed at least 1 month of the season due to injury. Now take into consideration that the Premier League isn't 12 months long and we don't have a winter break. So yes, we have had senior players missing for extended periods of times during important times of the season with many of those players out at the same time.

Click to expand...

Last time this subject was brought up I worked out that every single player in the first team squad has been injured for at least 1 game this season and the guy that's only missed one game through injury is Evra (De Gea also missed 1 game through injury as well but that was during his spell on the sidelines anyway).

I know missing just one game through injury is no big deal in the grand scheme of things but to have not 1 player stay clear of injury is pretty unbelievable tbh

I reckon Arsenal have had particularly bad luck with injuries over the last couple of years.
Always appears that way anyway

Tom84 said:

Last time this subject was brought up I worked out that every single player in the first team squad has been injured for at least 1 game this season and the guy that's only missed one game through injury is Evra (De Gea also missed 1 game through injury as well but that was during his spell on the sidelines anyway).

I know missing just one game through injury is no big deal in the grand scheme of things but to have not 1 player stay clear of injury is pretty unbelievable tbh

Click to expand...

It is incredibly worrying and despite the fact it's been one of Evra's worst seasons at United it's good that he's only missed one game because the only player who has been fit and has played anything like regularly at LB is Jonny Evans and he's been key in the middle thanks to injuries to other players. But yes, you're correct, every single player you could consider a starter at Man Utd has been injured this season, I'm just amazed we've done as well as we have, especially given the general consensus that this is a "poor" or "very average" Man Utd side.

Moses said:

Congrats for working out a meaningless stat!

Click to expand...

And congrats to you for failing to see the point

jamesy505 said:

I reckon Arsenal have had particularly bad luck with injuries over the last couple of years.
Always appears that way anyway

Click to expand...

We have but no more worse than say Utd...problem with our injuries is that once a player of ours gets injured, the player tends to be out for quite some time therefore we start losing games.

The weird thing is that Arsenal seem to lose the most important players in our squad which affects us badly ie a few seasons ago it was RVP who was always injured, then Vermaelen got injured last season and this season its Wilshere...

Okay because I've got too much time on my hands;

West Brom (a) - Evra, Rafael, Hernandez, Fletcher, Valencia
Spurs (h) - Ferdinand, Vidic, Rafael, Fletcher, Valencia
Arsenal (h) - Vidic, Rafael, Fletcher, Valencia
Bolton (a) - Vidic, Rafael, Welbeck, Fletcher, Valencia
Chelsea (h) - Vidic, Ferdinand, Rafael, Welbeck, Cleverley
Stoke (a) - Vidic, Rafael, Cleverley, Rooney, Smalling
Norwich (h) - Vidic, Fabio, Rafael, Smalling, Cleverley
Liverpool (a) - Vidic, Fabio, Rafael, Cleverley
City (h) - Rafael, Cleverley, Carrick, Giggs
Everton (a) - Rafael, Carrick, Young, Smalling, Anderson, Giggs
Sunderland (h) - Rafael, Smalling, Cleverley, Young, Anderson, Giggs
Swansea (a) - Rafael, Smalling, Cleverley, Anderson, Welbeck
Newcastle (h) - Rafael, Jones, Cleverley, Anderson, Welbeck, Berbatov, Fletcher
Villa (a) - Rafael, Fabio, Berbatov, Cleverley, Anderson, Berbatov
Wolves (h) - Rafael, Fabio, Vidic, Cleverley, Anderson, Fletcher, Berbatov
QPR (a) - Rafael, Fabio, Vidic, Cleverley, Anderson, Fletcher
Fulham (a) - Fabio, Vidic, Cleverley, Anderson, Fletcher, Ferdinand
Wigan (h) - Fabio, Vidic, Cleverley, Anderson, Fletcher, Young, Ferdinand, Smalling, Jones
Blackburn (h) - Fabio, Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Young, Ferdinand, Giggs, Rooney, Smalling, Evans
Newcastle (a) - Fabio, Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Young, Smalling, Evans
Bolton (h) - Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Young, Anderson, Smalling, Jones
Arsenal (a) - Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Young, Anderson, Ferdinand
Stoke (h) - De Gea, Lindegaard, Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Young, Anderson, Jones, Rooney, Nani
Chelsea (a) - Lindegaard, Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Anderson, Smalling, Jones, Nani
Liverpool (h) - Lindegaard, Vidic, Fletcher, Young, Anderson, Smalling, Jones, Nani
Norwich (a) - Lindegaard, Vidic, Fletcher, Anderson, Rooney, Valencia, Cleverley
Spurs (a) - Lindegaard, Vidic, Fletcher, Valencia, Smalling, Cleverley
West Brom (h) - Lindegaard, Vidic, Fletcher, Valencia, Anderson, Nani, Smalling
Wolves (a) - Lindegaard, Vidic, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Jones
Fulham (h) - Lindegaard, Vidic, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani

That's all our PL fixtures thus far and the players who have been missing through injury in each and that's without paying any attention whatsoever in the likes of Owen.

That took a long time and there's probably players I've left out

Tom seriously, it was not worth that amount of time. *waits for someone to post the XKCD comic about people arguing on the internet*

Shamikebab said:

Tom seriously, it was not worth that amount of time. *waits for someone to post the XKCD comic about people arguing on the internet*

Click to expand...

tbh it was more for my own reference more than anything else. I couldn't care less about Moses before he thinks it was done for him

I'm actually surprised at how little the likes of Hernandez has actually been injured, as it seems like he's barely played this season and on the face of things that's simply been because he hasn't been in favour