Medical expert ‘wowed’ as real reason for chart-topping Chelsea figures revealed
Chelsea were victims of their own success during the 2021-22 season as they struggled with the most time-loss injuries of any Premier League club.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine data analysis.
Per figures published by Dinnery on Twitter (6 June), Chelsea struggled with the most injuries of any top-flight club (50) throughout the 2021-22 campaign – a cumulative total of 1015 days lost across the Blues’ squad.
Thomas Tuchel’s side picked up 8.7 injuries per 1000 minutes played, while league-best Wolves suffered an average of 4.7 injuries in that time.
Dinnery suggested Chelsea’s elongated season is to blame for the eye-catching figures.
The Stamford Bridge club played 63 games across six different competitions in the 2021-22 season.
He told Football Insider‘s Ewan Kingsbury: “You can look at these numbers and say ‘wow, that’s a lot of injuries’.
“However, you’ve always got to contextualise.
“In terms of minutes played for Chelsea – no English team has actually played more than Chelsea this season.
“If you look at some of the other clubs in the Premier League, it’s not going to be a like-for-like comparison.
“If you look at the other end of the scale, Newcastle played 40 games – their league games, plus two domestic cup fixtures.
“Looking at the incidents per 1000 minutes played just allows us to consider the number of games these clubs were involved in.
“Chelsea only had around 8.7 injuries per 1000 minutes, which puts them in the bottom half – but it’s not the worst record.
“They had a lot of players involved at the Euros, as well – and there have been some effects carried over from that.
“There’s a bigger picture. The more games and the more exposure these players have, the more risk of a problem.”
In other news, finance guru issues “massive” Chelsea verdict after boardroom reveal.