The festive season is upon us. While it’s a period of merriment and good cheer for most, for teams in the Premier League, it can be a nightmare.
Clubs are often tasked with playing a lot of games in a short amount of time, which can lead to a pile-up of injuries. But which clubs are suffering the most from players being out injured?
We’ll only be looking at injured players for this list. Players who are unavailable for other reasons will be given a mention, but won’t be added to the overall injury count.
Brentford
Brentford are first up – the Bees currently have six players who are out with injuries, although three of them could be fit to play as they undergo late fitness tests.
Among the players injured are Fabio Carvalho, Josh Dasilva and Reiss Nelson. Jordan Henderson and Igor Thiago could be fit to play, but their status has yet to be confirmed.
That’s not all – Keith Andrews’ men will also lose a pair of players – Dango Ouattara and Frank Onyeka – as they will both be taking part in AFCON.
Wolves
Wolves are languishing at the bottom of the Premier League table and their current injury record only serves to compound their woes.
Rodrigo Gomes, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Hugo Bueno are all out with injuries, but Bueno has a slight chance of being fit for the weekend.
One of their top defenders, Emmanuel Agbadou, will also be missing as he travels with the Ivory Coast squad to AFCON – on top of this, Yerson Mosquera will miss out on their game against Brentford on Saturday due to suspension.
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace have been on an excellent run in the Premier League so far this season, but an injury crisis threatens to undo all of Oliver Glasner’s good work at Selhurst Park.
Daichi Kamada, Cheick Doucoure and star man Daniel Munoz are all out injured at the moment, with a further three senior team players being unavailable due to injury.
That’s not all – Ismaila Sarr, who has been fantastic for the Eagles this season, has been picked to join the Senegal team at AFCON. As such, Palace are struggling on several fronts at the moment.
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham don’t necessarily have the most injuries in the Premier League, but they might have more long-term absentees than any other team in the division at present.
Some of them are key players – Destiny Udogie and Dejan Kulusevski won’t return until after the new year, while James Maddison has been out since the start of the season with an ACL injury. He won’t be back in action until the next campaign.
Additionally, they will be without Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma for the next month, due to their participation in AFCON.
Newcastle United
Of all the teams in the Premier League, none of them have a list of absentees quite as lengthy as Newcastle United’s. The Mags have nine injured players at the moment – only two of them have a chance of playing at the weekend.
They’re missing some star players, too – Sven Botman, Nick Pope, Tino Livramento, Kieran Trippier and Dan Burn are all out with various injuries.
To add insult to injury, Newcastle are one of a few teams in the Premier League who aren’t affected by AFCON – therefore, all of their absentees are injury-related.