When we are hearing football managers say they are struggling to put together a full team because of the sheer number of injured players, it’s clear there is a problem.

At the time of writing this blog there are injuries in ALL 20 Premier League teams. Not one team seems to have been spared from the continual flow of injuries that have been afflicting the league.

What is even more concerning than the news of all teams sustaining injuries, is the news that so many of the injuries are located in the knee area. The most recent injury updates from the Premier League [https://www.premierleague.com/latest-player-injuries] show that at least 17 of the 20 teams have players with knee or hamstring injuries. Due to the complexity of the knee and in particular ligament injures such as an ACL injury, it unfortunately means they often have some of the longest recovery times. On average, the recovery time for an ACL injury can be approximately 9 months following ACL reconstruction surgery.

THE HEADLINES

Here are just a few of the injury headlines that I have read since the 2024/25 season started:

“Rodri injury: Man City midfielder ‘out for long, long time’ and requires surgery after knee injury suffered vs Arsenal.” Sky Sports, 25^th September 2024

“Arsenal suffer new injury blow as Ben White undergoes surgery.” The Independent, 13^th November 2024

“Wesley Fofana’s injury presents a problem for Chelsea. Who will Maresca turn to?”  NY Times, 4^th December 2024

“Bournemouth’s Enes Unal suffers second ACL injury in training.” BeSoccer, 8th January 2025

“Jesus to have surgery on anterior cruciate ligament injury.” Premier League, 14th January 2025

The relentless stream of injuries is having a major effect on teams as we are seeing footballers sustain season-ending injuries. And it’s not just happening to one or two players, multiple players at a time are sidelined, resulting in teams appearing to struggle to form a strong starting 11.

In December 2024, Fofana was the third Chelsea player out with a hamstring injury in Chelsea alone. In fact, the Premier League reported at least 15 hamstring injuries across all teams in their injury update list in December. A month later, in January 2025, this has increased to a staggering 23 hamstring injuries across the teams.

DO WE KNOW THE EXACT CAUSE OR SOLUTION?

It is thought that the shorter amount of time between matches could be having an impact. The teams taking part in European cup competitions and the players who are playing for their national teams are seeing an increasing schedule that doesn’t always allow for much resting time between matches.

After concerns for goalkeeper Alisson who was out for several months with a hamstring injury, Liverpool manager Arne Slot said, “The 12:30 kick-off is not a problem because we train at the same time but what might be something to think about for the English FA [is that] if you play a Champions League game on a Wednesday evening and then to play on Saturday at 12:30 might be a disadvantage when it comes to injuries,” BBC, 18th October 2024.

In 2018, BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine published a review of post-match recovery for ball games including football and suggest that “physical performance recovery takes up to ≥48 hours after regular training”, but, significantly, “after matches, underlying mechanisms of muscle recovery last up to ≥72 hours”. With Arne Slot’s above example, the players are playing again within 62 hours, so it’s entirely possible their muscles have not completely recovered when they are playing their next match.

Long game times may be a cause for concern. Matches will always be 90 minutes long, after all it’s been that way for over 150 years! But matches are often closer to 100 minutes of play when you include stoppage time.

This season, the FA have increased the accuracy of the way they calculate stoppage time after goals which is a step in the right direction to ensure there isn’t unnecessary extra time. “From this season, when a goal is scored, match officials will only start adding time on to the end of the match when the delay between the goal and the subsequent kick-off exceeds 30 seconds. This will allow natural time for both teams to resume their restart positions after each goal.” [Premier League]

As well as the added stoppage time at the end of the game, could the stoppage time during the game be having an impact? The stopping and starting of a match has always been there when there is a goal, free kick, injury, and for lots of other reasons. But now there is even more stoppage time with the addition of VAR. This often requires a longer wait while the referee is making their decision. Is more stopping and starting having an impact on the players?

Are we now seeing a vicious circle of injuries? A player is sidelined after getting injured, another footballer comes back from an injury but gets re-injured, the first player tries to come back too soon from their injury and aggravates the injury. Then both players are suddenly out for longer. More and more injured players means less and less choice of who to play, meaning footballers may decide to rush back too quickly after an injury.

Are injuries happening at certain times of the year? There are suggestions that Premier League players are more prone to injury when the season starts, or more prone to injuries in winter. There isn’t a definitive answer as to whether it is necessary to have more breaks at certain times of the year or greater gaps between matches as the season starts. But more research into this may uncover if we are seeing injuries occurring more at particular times of the year.

---

Related blogs
Football and Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injuries: What you Need to Know – https://ortho-surgery.uk/index.php/football-acl-injury/

References
Steven H Doeven, Michel S Brink, Silke J Kosse, Koen A P M Lemmink – Postmatch recovery of physical performance and biochemical markers in team ball sports: a systematic review: BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine 2018

Football player image: Adobe Stock