Injury costs soar for top clubs across Europe

Europe's top clubs paid a record-high price for injuries to their stars last season, according to a new study.

Injury costs for clubs in the continent's 'Big Five' leagues in the 2021-22 campaign were £513.23m (€573.42m), a leap of 29% compared to the season before, international insurance brokers Howden said.

Injuries themselves were up by 20% on the season before, with 4,810 recorded in all.

The data's publication comes at a time when the future international calendars for men's and women's football are being debated, with world players' union FIFPRO insistent that structures must be put in place to protect player workload.

Howden calculates injury cost by multiplying the cost per day of a player - using base salary data from Sporting Intelligence - by the number of days they were unavailable due to injury.

The Premier League had the highest injury cost count of any of the top five divisions at £184.57m (€206.22m), with La Liga in Spain a distant second on £109.34m (€122.16m).

Injuries in the Premier League were up to 1,231 in 2021-22 compared to 938 the season before.

Chelsea topped England's injury count with 97, Manchester United were second with 81 and Liverpool - who progressed to the end of every competition they entered last season - had 80.

United recorded the highest injury cost of £26.72m (€29.85m), an average cost per injury of £330,000 (€368,700) and accounting for 14.5% of the total injury cost for the Premier League as a whole.

French champions Paris St Germain - whose star names include Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi - had the highest injury cost of any club in Europe, £34.22m (€38.23m).

Europe's men's club competitions are set to expand from 2024-25 onwards, meaning an extra 64 matches in the Champions