Which Premier League team has the worst luck with injuries in 2025/26?

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 22 Jan 2026 06:24 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

With the ever-increasing football calendar, it seems that footballers are perhaps more prone to niggling injuries than ever before, even with the advances in sports science and physiotherapy.

The introduction of the expanded Club World Cup in the summer received criticism, mostly from players, who were upset at having yet more games added to their schedule which was already at breaking point.

Chelsea went on to win the tournament, but between the start of the World Cup and the new Premier League season, they suffered 23 new injuries.

The Men's European Football Injury Index, created by Howden, has ran for the past five years and the recently published 2025 edition details injuries that have occurred over the last five seasons.

The report states that injuries have cost clubs from the top five leagues €3.45 billion in that time period. Up until the report was published, 22,596 injuries were taken into account.

Which Premier League side has the most injuries?

PremierInjuries.com shows Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds have all had 19 injuries since the beginning of the campaign.

However, it terms of length of times players are missing, Newcastle tops the list with 640 absent days due to injury.

Only Tottenham and Arsenal also have more than 600 days lost to injury.

Thomas Frank and Spurs indeed have issues with injuries at the moment and stars Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison haven't played a single minute of football, but their situation pales in comparison to last season under Ange Postecoglou as by the same point in 2024/25 they had 25 injuries recorded - six more than the highest tally in 2025/26.

Liverpool are not among the main sufferers of injuries, but significance of injuries can matter, too, as the most expensive player in the history of the Premier League, Alexander Isak, is currently out with a fractured leg.

Ben Dinnery of Premier Injuries states:

"The landscape has changed massively since we began recording this data and injuries are now one of the main topics of discussion - in the same way xG has become part of the mainstream conversation.

"We are working in a league that is considered the most intense and dynamic, and that is reflected in the statistical analysis of sprints and high intensity runs, but also lessening recovery times.

You then throw in the football calendar and they are coming together to create an environment where players are being pushed, and sometimes broken, because they are not physically capable of tolerating those demands.

"What everyone wants to now know is 'when will a player be back?' And we are seeing players rushing to get back and then some re-injuries due to the pressures relating to that.

"There is also a lot of research to support a change of management as having an impact on injury - inherently you will see a rise in the number of injuries under a new regime, which can be due to the different demands and a change in philosophy."

League by League

As mentioned above, clubs in the top five leagues have lost €3.45bn due to injuries over the last five years, with wages being paid with players unavailable.

Even though the Premier League has footed the biggest portion of that €3.45bn bill, the most injuries actually occur in the German Bundesliga. In the last five years, 6,177 "physical" problems stopped players from featuring for their clubs.

The Premier League is in second with 5,367 injuries and LaLiga in third with 4,171 injuries.

The Howden report states:

"Outside of the Premier League, only three clubs - Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid - registered injury costs of over €40m (£34.48m) in a single season, in last five years.

"Whilst Bundesliga clubs have consistently recorded the highest rates of injury across each season, data shows that they come at a notably lower cost – an average of €115.95m (£99.96m) per season.

"Over the five years, Real Madrid incurred a total injury cost of €168.76m (£145.48m), compared to rival Barcelona’s €122.99m (£106.03m) cost.

"Paris Saint-Germain is the only French men’s team to record above-average injury figures in each of the last five seasons - incurring a total of nearly 300 injuries during this period.

"In Italy, Juventus and AC Milan were the two teams to incur above average injury counts – with the former unable to win the domestic title in any of the previous five years."

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