Top 5: Most injury-prone Premier League players

News broke this week that Daniel Sturridge is finally fit to feature for Liverpool once again after missing 73 out of 145 competitive matches since he joined Liverpool back in January 2013. This means that the 26-year-old has spent more than half of his Liverpool career absent through either illness or injury, and has spent 564 out of 1060 days on the treatment table.

Other Premier League players who seem to spend the majority of their time out of action include Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany, West Ham’s Andy Carroll and Arsenal midfielder Theo Walcott. In fact, Arsenal are the most injury-prone club in the Premier League having recorded over 900 unavailable players since 2002 – an average of one every five days.

Here are five of the most injury-prone players to feature, although not as frequently as some may like, in the Premier League:

Wayne Rooney

3rd November 2015 – UEFA Champions League – Group B – Manchester United v CSKA Moscow – Wayne Rooney of Man Utd celebrates after scoring their 1st goal – Photo: Simon Stacpoole / Offside.

Whilst perhaps a little surprising, the England captain has been injured more times than any other Premier League player over the last five seasons.

The striker has picked up 34 separate knocks over this time frame with his groin, knee and ankle affecting him most.

Although the 30-year-old has had this hefty number of injuries, he hasn’t actually spent too much time on the sidelines, with his longest spell out in the last five years being only 32 days; a knee laceration that he picked up in a game against Fulham during 2012.

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