Europe’s top clubs paid a record price for star injuries last season, according to new research.
Injury costs for clubs in the continent’s ‘Big Five’ leagues in the 2021-22 campaign stood at £513.23m (€573.42m), a jump of 29 per cent on compared to the previous season, said international insurance brokers Howden.
Injuries themselves were up 20% from the previous season, with 4,810 recorded in total.
The release of the data comes at a time when future international schedules for men’s and women’s football are being debated, with global players’ union FIFPRO insisting on the need for structures to be put in place to protect players’ workloads.
Howden calculates injury cost by multiplying a player’s cost per day – using Sporting Intelligence’s basic wage data – by the number of days he was unavailable due to injury.
The Premier League had the highest number of injuries among the top five divisions at £184.57m (€206.22m), with Spain’s La Liga trailing far behind at £109.34m (122.16 million euros).
Premier League injuries reached 1,231 in 2021-22 from 938 the previous season.
Chelsea overtook England’s injury tally with 97, Manchester United were second with 81 and Liverpool – who progressed through to the end of every competition they entered last season – had 80.
United recorded the highest injury cost of £26.72m (€29.85m), an average cost per injury of £330,000 (€368,700) and accounting for 14.5% of the total injury cost for the Premier League as a whole.
French champions Paris St Germain – whose stars include Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi – have recorded the highest injury cost of any club in Europe, £34.22m (€38.23m).
European men’s club competition is set to expand from 2024-25, meaning an additional 64 Champions League matches in total.
“We could also see an increased focus on using younger players given that they are generally more injury resistant and tend to recover faster.”
James Burrows, head of sport at Howden, said Europe’s superpower clubs could not just get out of trouble by increasing squad size unless regulations changed.
“Managing the risk will involve greater rotation of team members and potentially seeking adjustments to the number and frequency of matches players are required to play,” he said.
“We could also see an increased focus on using younger players given that they are generally more injury resistant and tend to recover faster.”
It’s a trend that may already be emerging, with Howden seeing a sharp rise in the number of injuries suffered by the under-21 age group, from 30 occurrences in the 2018 season- 19 to 326 in 2021-22.
Premier League clubs are understood to be unanimous in wanting their league board to formally request that the Football Association remove replays of the FA Cup third and fourth rounds from the same season, while the news agency PA also understands that the league’s ‘Big Six’ clubs are in favor of allowing clubs competing in Europe to drop out of the Carabao Cup or enter an Under-21 side.
At global level, FIFPRO wants the new calendars to provide off-season breaks of four or five weeks away from the club and national team environment for all players and a similar mid-season break of one to two weeks.
He also believes there should be a cap on the number of consecutive matches – appearances of 45 minutes or more less than five days apart – in which a player can play. FIFPRO indicates a higher number of appearances in this “critical zone”. increase the risk of injury and can also impact the longevity of a player’s career.
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