00:00 According to BBC Sport there have been 196 injuries in the Premier League this season,
00:07 a 15% increase compared with the previous four campaigns.
00:10 And yet, as this graph displays, some clubs are suffering much more than others.
00:15 To find out just why this is, I spoke to Moorpath Town's sports therapist, Stephen Shaw.
00:20 You'd have to look at those players and look to see whether it's a recurring injury,
00:25 whether it's something that they've had before, or they're in that older group.
00:28 And then the other things that seem to follow teams around,
00:33 it comes down to fatigue and an increase in volume and an increase in intensity.
00:38 And if you have an increase in volume, you're more at risk of injury.
00:42 If you have an increase in intensity, you're more at risk of an injury.
00:46 And if, for example, you're in Newcastle and you've gone from not being playing in Europe
00:50 to now you're playing in the Champions League, you've had an increase in both.
00:54 They also got to the League Cup final last year, so they had probably more games than they were used to.
00:59 Probably more games than they thought that squad was capable of taking on.
01:04 But they seem to have coped with it last season.
01:08 And then this season, they seem to have, I wouldn't say crashed a little bit,
01:13 but they've obviously been struck with a couple of injuries that are more than they probably would have catered for.
01:18 And then also style of play.
01:23 So I know you'd ask us off air about a difference with some clubs to others,
01:29 but style of play comes into that as well.
01:31 A lot of teams, if you're kind of possession-based, you maybe not have as many transitions,
01:36 which is basically winning the ball and losing the ball.
01:38 If you're better at keeping the ball, you don't have those.
01:41 On a transition, you're basically going from changing direction, you'll be sprinting one way.
01:46 All of a sudden, you're going back and going the other way.
01:48 So those kind of things will play a part if you're a pressing team,
01:53 if you're a team notorious for your high speed running and your work rate.
01:57 Those kind of teams are probably going to be more susceptible than ones who just keep the ball and keep moving the ball.
02:04 I also wanted to find out about players and clubs becoming prone to more injuries
02:10 as the amount of games played in a season increases.
02:14 The TV companies want more games, not less.
02:17 They talk about having a 39th fixture played abroad.
02:21 I think the Super League will come back around.
02:24 The Champions League changes its format quite often,
02:27 and about a World Club Cup as a tournament.
02:30 So I don't think there's an appetite for less games,
02:33 and I think it'll just continuously happen and players will get injured more ultimately.
02:39 It's sad to really think of it that way.
02:41 They are a commodity and also they're well financed.
02:46 It would therefore appear that as of now,
02:48 style of play and profile of player are contributing factors to detrimental injuries.
02:53 But in the future, more will become susceptible
02:56 as fixture loads continue to exponentially increase in both the Premier League and European competition.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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