Study of injuries in football shows certain trends

I suppose it will come as little consolation to Kevin De Bruyne the hamstring injury which has ruled him out of the Manchester City side for a number of games – and, hardly coincidentally, coincided with Pep Guardiola’s side losing their 100% record – puts the brilliant Belgian international firmly ‘on trend’.

He’ll be still less pleased to learn the finest medical minds in football have yet to hit on a solution to the increasing prevalence of ‘hammer’ blows across the game.

Jan Erkstrand, Professor of Sports Medicine at Linkoping University in Sweden, is the Lead Expert in Uefa’s Elite Club Injury Study which, since 2001, has been compiling injury data and identifying trends based on information submitted by some of Europe’s top clubs, including Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal and Chelsea.