Premier League clubs’ injury crisis: Why are some teams suffering more than others?

Local TV Sport

There have been 196 injuries in the Premier League this season, and yet some clubs have suffered double the amount of them as others. Daniel Wales spoke to Sports Therapist, Steven Shaw to find out why.

Transcript

00:00 According to BBC Sport there have been 196 injuries in the Premier League this season,

00:07 a 15% increase compared with the previous four campaigns.

00:10 And yet, as this graph displays, some clubs are suffering much more than others.

00:15 To find out just why this is, I spoke to Moorpath Town's sports therapist, Stephen Shaw.

00:20 You'd have to look at those players and look to see whether it's a recurring injury,

00:25 whether it's something that they've had before, or they're in that older group.

00:28 And then the other things that seem to follow teams around,

00:33 it comes down to fatigue and an increase in volume and an increase in intensity.

00:38 And if you have an increase in volume, you're more at risk of injury.

00:42 If you have an increase in intensity, you're more at risk of an injury.

00:46 And if, for example, you're in Newcastle and you've gone from not being playing in Europe

00:50 to now you're playing in the Champions League, you've had an increase in both.

00:54 They also got to the League Cup final last year, so they had probably more games than they were used to.

00:59 Probably more games than they thought that squad was capable of taking on.

01:04 But they seem to have coped with it last season.

01:08 And then this season, they seem to have, I wouldn't say crashed a little bit,

01:13 but they've obviously been struck with a couple of injuries that are more than they probably would have catered for.

01:18 And then also style of play.

01:23 So I know you'd ask us off air about a difference with some clubs to others,

01:29 but style of play comes into that as well.

01:31 A lot of teams, if you're kind of possession-based, you maybe not have as many transitions,

01:36 which is basically winning the ball and losing the ball.

01:38 If you're better at keeping the ball, you don't have those.

01:41 On a transition, you're basically going from changing direction, you'll be sprinting one way.

01:46 All of a sudden, you're going back and going the other way.

01:48 So those kind of things will play a part if you're a pressing team,

01:53 if you're a team notorious for your high speed running and your work rate.

01:57 Those kind of teams are probably going to be more susceptible than ones who just keep the ball and keep moving the ball.

02:04 I also wanted to find out about players and clubs becoming prone to more injuries

02:10 as the amount of games played in a season increases.

02:14 The TV companies want more games, not less.

02:17 They talk about having a 39th fixture played abroad.

02:21 I think the Super League will come back around.

02:24 The Champions League changes its format quite often,

02:27 and about a World Club Cup as a tournament.

02:30 So I don't think there's an appetite for less games,

02:33 and I think it'll just continuously happen and players will get injured more ultimately.

02:39 It's sad to really think of it that way.

02:41 They are a commodity and also they're well financed.

02:46 It would therefore appear that as of now,

02:48 style of play and profile of player are contributing factors to detrimental injuries.

02:53 But in the future, more will become susceptible

02:56 as fixture loads continue to exponentially increase in both the Premier League and European competition.

03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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