Hamstring injuries down 5.6% in Premier League
Written by Simon Austin — June 15, 2017
HAMSTRING injuries went down 5.6% as a proportion of the total in the Premier League last season, according to the website premierinjuries.com.
That may not sound like much, but it equates to £7.34million in ‘saved’ wages for the 20 clubs. Hamstring-related injuries - classified as strains, tightness and surgery - have traditionally been the number one cause of injury in football.
Players are susceptible to them because of the number of high-speed sprints they do in matches - and because many are quad dominant.
In 2015/16, 208 of the 1,013 significant injuries in the League were hamstring-related, which amounted to 20.5% of the total. Last season, this had been reduced to 14.9% of the total - 166 of 1,111 injuries.
The total number of injuries equated to £131,314,980 in lost player wages, meaning a 5.6% reduction amounted a ‘saving’ of £7.34m.
Ben Dinnery, who runs premierinjuries.com, told TGG: “Clubs and backroom staff are always keen to know the data around so-called avoidable injuries because that’s ultimately what they will be judged on.
“Technology has played a major role in helping to identify a player’s threshold, managing and tailoring individual training plans and developing position-specific sessions. There has been a move away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.”