The extremely pesky business of counting the number of players injured

By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw

If you are a regular reader you will know just how pesky injury numbers can be.  Reports can claim that Arsenal have players out injured who were actually injured on loan (and therefore not really an Arsenal player, since if uninjured the player would not be playing for Arsenal anyway), players who have been classed as being injured for over 52 weeks in a year (honest!) and players who have a strain but are deemed to be ok for the coming match.

Because of this, along with Stewart Robson’s regular slot on Talk Sprout in which he says that Arsenal always have greater numbers of injuries than everyone else AND ITS ALL WENGER’S FAULT, we’ve taken to running all sorts of injury analyses.   And because of my position as a medical man, not to mention regular drinker at the Toppled Bollard (hostelry to Untold’s elite) I have been asked to conduct the occasional investigation into injury stories.

And so I start with today’s headline from a bloggetta… “Arsenal stay third in the Injury League table, Everton are top and Watford are currently in second place.”

Alarming stuff you will agree, since Untold has been reporting a much lower number of deadbeats on the books.

According to these jolly japesters “Arsenal still have five players out as the rest of the footballing world slowly return from the first international break of the 2017/18 season.”

And they say, “Joel Campbell (knee), Santi Cazorla (ankle) and Calum Chambers (groin) are all still out, but Aaron Ramsey and Alex Iwobi will be back in action for the Gunners.”

Now correct me if I am a doughnut (and I know you will), but isn’t Joel Campbell on loan at Betis and so not an Arsenal player per se.    If we want to count on loan injured players we can, but then we need to do it for all clubs, and I am not sure the bloggetta is actually doing that.

And Santi Caz, yes of course he is injured, but he is not actually listed in the 25 players who can play in the first half of the season, so should we count him as injured.    But if we do, then shouldn’t we also count Krystian Bielik  who is also not in the 25 but is also injured.  You see what I mean about it being complicated.

So complicated I can’t make head nor tail of their own chart of injuries which is based on one point per player per week for 2017/18 – which is where Arsenal turn up third with 25 points.   If we take it we have had three weeks of the PL season (we haven’t but I’ll be kind) that gives us eight players a week out.  That’s quite a lot really, and I can’t honestly understand how I haven’t noticed.

Everton (8):

Barkley, Ross – Hamstring Strain
Bolasie, Yannick – ACL Injury
Coleman, Seamus – Double Leg Fracture
Funes Mori, Ramiro – Knee Cartilage Surgery
Holgate, Mason – Ankle Injury
Klaassen, Davy – Foot Injury
McCarthy, James – Knee Injury
Pickford, Jordan – Muscular Injury

Watford (6):

Cathcart, Craig – Knee Injury
Hoban, Tom – ACL Injury
Janmaat, Daryl – Groin Strain
Kaboul, Younès – Muscular Injury
Pereyra, Roberto – Groin Injury
Zárate, Mauro – ACL Injury

Crystal Palace (6):

Loftus-Cheek, Ruben – Groin Strain
Riedewald, Jairo – Groin Strain
Sako, Bakary – Calf Strain
Tomkins, James – Groin Strain
Wickham, Connor – ACL Injury
Zaha, Wilfried – Knee Injury

Liverpool (4):

Bogdán, Ádám – ACL Injury
Clyne, Nathaniel – Hamstring Injury
Coutinho, Philippe – Lower Back Injury
Lallana, Adam – Thigh Strain

Arsenal (3):

Cazorla, Santi – Plantaris Injury
Chambers, Calum – Groin Strain
Iwobi, Alex – Quadriceps Strain

So this one puts Arsenal in fifth.  But in so doing it continues to includes Iwobi, who it appears will be ready for the match on saturday if required.

Meanwhile physioroom which we have traditionally quoted gives this chart today…