Chelsea told to stop whinging as £89m talks planned for June – expert
It would paint a false picture if Chelsea use a recent £89million study to lobby for the reintroduction of five substitutes in the Premier League.
That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Per the Daily Mail last Friday (25 March), the so-called ‘big six’ will again ask for five changes at the Premier League’s AGM in June.
It is understood that they will raise recent research that revealed that top-flight clubs took an £89.2million hit because of injuries in 2020-21.
The study, which multiplies daily player salary by the number of days lost to injury, found that Chelsea paid £13.75m to unavailable players.
No club in the Premier League shelled out more.
But Dinnery points out that other clubs have proportionately been hit far harder than Thomas Tuchel’s side.
“Increased exposure can lead to increased injuries,” he told Football Insider‘s Adam Williams.
“But Chelsea haven’t had the most injuries for this season. The likes of Leeds, Everton and Watford have all had more injuries in the Premier League.
“They have lost around 600 days to injury this season. Leeds are pushing well over 1000 days in that same period.
“Chelsea are actually in the bottom half in terms of cumulative days lost to injury per 1000 minutes played.
“So, 600 days is a high number. But with five subs and the fact they have a high number of injuries, correlation is not necessarily causation.
“We have had heavily disrupted pre-seasons for the last few years. Also, they are just simply playing more games with their European campaign.”
Tuchel has been a vocal proponent of the reintroduction of the five substitutes rule.
Chelsea currently have six players out injured.
In other news, pundit suggests Newcastle United will “replace” Chelsea among Premier League elite after £1billion update.