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Man Games Lost To Injury: Week 25 Update

A very quick glance at Inury in the Premier League after 25 games played.

This is update article of sorts. You can find previous articles on injury in the Premier League here and here.

The method is simple: Take each teams injury list before each fixture and then check this against who actually played or was on the bench and available to play. From there we get a number of injuries each club suffered per game.

Man Games Lost To Injury (Week 25)


Games lost To Injury
Villa 142
Arsenal 111
Newcastle 107
Man Utd 106
Man City 100
Fulham 85
Wigan 84
West Ham 82
Spurs 82
Qpr 79
Liverpool 75
Norwich 70
Sunderland 70
West Brom 69
Swansea 66
Everton 65
Reading 58
Southampto 54
Stoke 53
Chelsea 52

Villa's number is just extraordinary. I'm not sure how media or fans can expect a manager to fight through that injury list. Yes, not all of those players are crucial first-teamer's (back up goalkeepers are excluded) but an injury list like that severely hampers the managers ability to select his near first choice XI or even a settled side week on week.

Four of the top six in the injury table have played the most number of games.

League Average Injuries Per Team Per Week

Injury_25_medium

Average injuries per week per team varies between 3 and 4. The past 4 weeks has seen a dip in the amount of injuries suffered. Could this be a function of relatively few midweek games, with only the odd FA cup replay and one round of midweek PL fixtures having been played?

I was told by an excellent source of information (Liverpool's Physio) that injury is not so much linked to training, if you get the training right, but to hours played of competitive football.

Will we see another spike of injuries among the clubs still in European competition?

Risers and Fallers

Arse_wig_lge_injury_25_medium

Not all clubs are injured at a consistent rate throughout the season. As mentioned, European clubs are more likely to suffer injuries due to the increased volume of games played.

Arsenal have seen their injury list decline as the season has worn on, and this may be a very helpful trend in their battle to secure 4th place. Conversely, Wigan, who really don't have the squad depth to absorb it, have seen their injuries per week climb and become steadily worse as the season has worn on.