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The most injury-hit season in Premier League history? Tottenham are the walking wounded in 2025/26
27 Apr 2026 11:01 CDT |
5 min read
News
Tottenham's 2025/26 has been an unmitigated disaster.
Some of it has been of the club's doing, some of the blame must land on the players, while a lot of the misfortune is down to Lady Luck, too, as Spurs have had to contend with a laundry list of injuries that has severely impacted the playing squad throughout the relegation-threatening campaign.
The latest player injured is Xavi Simons, who will miss the rest of the season and, agonisingly for him, the 2026 World Cup with the Netherlands.
He went down in the match against Wolves this past weekend as it was subsequently confirmed that he has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.
"They say life can be cruel and today it feels that way," the Dutchman wrote in a social media post.
"My season has come to an abrupt end and I'm just trying to process it. Honestly, I'm heartbroken. None of it makes sense.
"All I've wanted to do is fight for my team and now the ability to do that has been snatched away from me … along with the World Cup.
"Representing my country this summer … just gone. It'll take time to find peace with this, but I'll continue to be the best team-mate I can be. I have no doubt that together we'll win this fight.
"I'll walk this path now, guided by faith, with strength, with resilience, with belief, as I count down the days to getting back out there. Be patient with me."
Dominic Solanke also went off injured in that game and he'll also join Ben Davies, Mohammed Kudus, Guglielmo Vicario, Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, Wilson Odobert and Cristian Romero in the treatment room.
Kulusevski and Maddison haven't played a second of Premier League football this season after the former underwent patella surgery and the latter, like Simons, also injured his ACL.
Maddison did return to the matchday squad versus Wolves but didn't come off the bench
In total, Spurs have suffered 36 injuries to players this season which is more than any team in the top-flight.
In addition to the players who are currently out; Kevin Danso, Radu Dragusin, Koto Takai, Destiny Udogie, Djed Spence, Rodrigo Bentancur, Joao Palhinha, Yves Bissouma, Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Pape Matar Sarr, Richarlison and Randal Kolo Muani have all spent time on the sidelines in 2025/26 as the club currently battles against relegation.
Current Premier League injuries
| Club | Current Injuries |
|---|---|
| Tottenham | 10 |
| Liverpool | 8 |
| Brentford | 7 |
| Arsenal | 6 |
| Burnley | 6 |
| Chelsea | 6 |
| Newcastle | 5 |
| Nottingham Forest | 5 |
| Brighton | 5 |
| Sunderland | 5 |
| Crystal Palace | 4 |
| Man Utd | 4 |
| Wolves | 4 |
| Bournemouth | 3 |
| Everton | 3 |
| Fulham | 3 |
| Man City | 3 |
| Aston Villa | 3 |
| Leeds | 2 |
| West Ham | 1 |
Over the last 20 years, the club that has suffered the most from injuries in a single season was Manchester United, who has 45 separate injuries in the 2023/4 season in which they finished eighth.
Twenty-one separate players suffered an injury for the Red Devils, totalling 1,620 days lost to those on the sidelines. Centre-back Lisandro Martinez missed 214 days due to three different injuries.
Though Tottenham don't have as many injuries as that, the severity of theirs in 2025/26 is also a factor, with key players like Maddison and Kulusevski missing pretty much the entire campaign.
The amount of injuries in the game as a whole has raised further questions about player fatigue, especially after the seemingly endless new dates on the football calendar, like last summer's Club World Cup.
Chelsea went on to win that tournament, but between the start of the Club 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.
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."
How much do injuries impact teams?
There was previously a Premier League trend that whichever team within the top five that had the fewest injuries ended up winning the title.
Blog Of The Net used data to determine this over a period between the 2007/08 season and the 2016/17 season.
It found that, in that period, the team in the top five with the fewest amount of average days lost to injury finishes first, the second fewest finished second and yes...the third fewest finished third.
Interestingly, the trend doesn't seem to factor at the bottom of the table, as within that 10-year period, Sunderland were the only team to finish 20th while also having the worst injury record that season.
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