Blues pay a high price for injuries
CLUB TOP CASUALTY LIST
THOMAS TUCHEL has seen Chelsea finish on top of the table when it comes to injuries.
The Blues boss, below, says his team would have been right in the title race had it not been for players missing key games.
And his complaints are backed up by new research that shows the top flight paid out a staggering £89.2million to injured players, more than any other top European league.
Premier League clubs also suffered more injuries, with 659 from the start of the 2021-22 season up to the weekend of January 18.
The study carried out by data specialists Howden Sport and Entertainment for the report ‘Feeling The Strain’ calculates the cost from player wages and how many days they were out.
Chelsea had 55 separate injuries. The absences cost £14.02m, with each worth an average of £250,000.
The Premier League also had the most soft-tissue injuries – muscle pulls and strains – at an average cost of £200,000.
Wolves had the fewest injuries with 15, while Crystal Palace (£860,000) were the only club whose ailments bill totalled less than £1 m.
Covid also had a huge impact, costing clubs £14.2m – 62 percent more than the entire 2020-21 season.
As if Tuchel did not have enough to worry about with Chelsea up for sale, the impact of injuries has been quite remarkable.
Romelu Lukaku, Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Christian Pulisic all missed a significant number of matches.
The Blues are third in the top flight, 11 points off the pace, but are still in the Champions League and FA Cup.
Tuchel was angry when Chelsea were made to play games despite Covid cases and a crippling injury list – and now the full impact can be seen.
James Burrows, Howden’s divisional director of sport & entertainment, said: “We’ve seen, over the last two years, there are a number of factors that influence how often injuries occur and how big a financial impact they have. “When a player misses matches his wages are still paid and so injuries – even before you begin to consider the cost of treatment – are a significant financial risk as well as a potentially negative influence on team performance.
“What has been interesting to note for the EPL is that the month of December was the worst for soft-tissue injuries, which correlates with the highest Covid-19 count. One potential explanation is
absences and disruption
placed additional strain on healthy players, forcing them to play more frequently and for longer. An alternative is that players returning from Covid19 weren’t at full match fitness before returning to competition.
“Either way, with rescheduled matches filling all the breathing space in an already compressed second half of the season, high rates of soft-tissue injuries are likely to continue through the rest of the season.”