Expert rubbishes ‘harsh’ Kalvin Phillips claim as source reveals Man City deal latest
Claims that Leeds United star Kalvin Phillips is injury prone are wide of the mark.
That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in data analysis.
This site revealed on Saturday (25 June) that Phillips, 26, has agreed a double-your-money contract as he finalises a move to Man City.
The Leeds-born midfielder spent much of 2021-22 on the sidelines and went under the knife to correct a hamstring problem in December.
But Dinnery insists that the City are not recruiting an injury-prone player in Phillips.
“I think the claims that he is injury prone are a little bit harsh,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“As always, you need to contextualise these things. You can’t forget what’s happened before with regards to the pandemic and the shortened pre-season. Then, of course, you look to last summer’s European Championship.
“Of the outfield players, only John Stones played more minutes than Phillips. In terms of distance covered, he was well beyond anyone else in those matches. Against Denmark alone, he covered over 15km.
“We have seen a lot of England players, including Phillips, suffer a reduction in minutes and performance. That’s no surprise.
“He is such a pivotal player in that team. Leeds were always going to take risks with him. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t.
“With Phillips, it didn’t work out and he suffered that major setback that kept him out for several months.
“His record in the Premier League hasn’t been great. His availability this season was less than 50 per cent and it was 70 per cent in the first season.
“But in the Championship, where the games maybe aren’t at the same intensity but are coming more regularly, he managed over 85 per cent availability in the two seasons before they went up.
“Hopefully, he can get a solid pre-season under his belt. Pep puts a lot of demands on his players but City also manage their players very well, and no one suffered fewer non-contact injuries than them.”
In other news, Millwall in advanced talks to sign Leeds United star Charlie Cresswell.