2013-2014 Season injury breakdown: Something's fishy at Colney

We started the Injury Room in July last year, in an effort to keep track of the massive number of injuries at the club. Arsenal have had the most injuries per year in the Premier League, possibly even Europe, every single year since records began (2002). Arsene Wenger promised a comprehensive investigation into the matter, although one might wonder why it took 12 years for him to react.

There are some interesting numbers to consider. One is that almost a third of our injuries sidelined the injured player for a month or longer. The Premier League season is only nine months long, meaning a third of our injuries resulted in the player losing at least 11% of the season.

Another is that we had five first-team players with devastating injuries this season. Diaby, Sanogo, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski and Walcott all sustained injuries taking them out of action for four months or more, which is basically half the season gone. Diaby actually got injured last season, but since it carried into this season it’s included in the data.

Let’s get down to business. Here are the numbers for 2013-2014:

General

• 72 first-team injuries were sustained in total
• 14 were strains (calf, thigh, etc)
• 12 were ankle injuries
• 9 were hamstrings

Length

• 19.4% of the injuries were only 1-2 day knocks
• 42% of the injuries were max one-week spells (7 days or below)
• 28% of the injuries resulted in the player being out for a month or longer (28 days or more)
• 14% resulted in the player being out for two months or longer (60 days or more)
• 11.1% resulted in three months or longer (90 days or more)
• 8.3% resulted in four months or longer (120 days or more)

Location

• Almost a quarter (23.6%) were sustained during training or on international duty

Individuals

• Abou Diaby spent 396 days on the sidelines (cruciate ligament tear)
• Emmanuel Frimpong spent 187 days on the sidelines (cruciate ligament tear)
• Yaya Sanogo spent 153 days out (lower back injury)
• Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain spent 145 days out (knee injury)
• Lukas Podolski spent 115 days out (hamstring)
• Theo Walcott is currently on day #148 and not expected back until August (cruciate ligament tear)

Percentage is how much of the season the player has missed. 2013-2014 Premier League season = 267 days:

Partnerships

• Laurent Koscielny spent a total of 56 days unavailable spread over seven injuries, Per Mertesacker had zero injury days
• Our three centre-fowards (Giroud, Sanogo and Bendtner) spent a combined total of 206 days on the sidelines
• First-choice full-backs Bacary Sagna and Kieran Gibbs spent a combined total of 98 days on the sidelines
• Two primary summer signings Flamini And Özil spent a combined total of 67 days on the sidelines

Safe to say something is fishy at Colney.