Tottenham’s torrid time with injuries has shown little signs of letting up as the end of the season approaches.
Spurs have once again endured a nightmare season with injury problems, having to be without several key players for extended periods.
While only one of a number of factors behind the club’s dismal campaign, which looks more and more as though it could end in relegation to the Championship, it has undoubtedly been a big reason behind their struggles.
Those problems have been added to by the news that Mohammed Kudus has suffered a setback in his recovery and looks set to miss the rest of the season, along with defender Cristian Romero who was forced off in tears with a knee injury in the loss to Sunderland.
We’ve had a look at the numbers which outline just how much injuries have impacted the club over the last two years…
According to Premier Injuries, only Brighton & Hove Albion’s injured players were out for more total days than Tottenham’s last season.
Spurs players were injured for a combined 1,553 days last season and missed a total of 193 games.
They suffered 41 injuries in which players were forced to miss games – the third most in the league behind Brighton and Ipswich.
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While they ended the season in 17th, there was little danger of relegation given the gap to the bottom three, and also won the Europa League. But there is no doubt injuries played a big part in their domestic struggles.
Many of those who contributed to that record were key players too. Micky van de Ven, Romero, Richarlison, Guglielmo Vicario and Dominic Solanke all missed prolonged periods.
Problems continued into this campaign
Former Spurs boss Thomas Frank, taking over from Ange Postecoglou last summer, identified the need to improve the availability of the players as a key area which would help the team to progress from the previous season’s disappointment.
Unfortunately for Frank, who was sacked in February, that proved not to be the case.
According to Transfermarkt, Spurs players have missed more than 200 league games this season combined, a number which will continue to rise given the already confirmed absences for the remainder of the campaign.
Two of Tottenham’s key creators, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, have missed the entirety of the campaign so far with serious knee injuries.
Dominic Solanke again missed considerable game time, being sidelined for half of the campaign, while others including Wilson Odobert, Destiny Udogie, Mohammed Kudus and Ben Davies have also been sidelined for prolonged periods.
There is also the element of players needing time to get up to speed again following their lengthy absences. Many, understandably, were not able to make an immediate impact on their returns.
There are clearly other issues at Spurs too, and even considering the injury crisis, there is a huge surprise at where they find themselves at this stage of the season. But it continues to be a major problem which is devastating the club.