The sheer extent of Milan’s injury problems has been laid bare, as since September 2020 their players missed over 100 more games than any other Serie A side in the top five and 52 per cent of those injuries were related to the flexor and thigh.
Radio Rossonera took a deep dive into the statistics, taking as the starting point Milan’s entry into the Europa League preliminary rounds in September 2020, all the way up to the most recent Serie A match against Udinese on December 11.
They compared the number of injuries in the Rossoneri squad to those of the other top Serie A sides, namely Inter, Atalanta, Napoli and Juventus.
It was discovered that Milan players collectively missed 377 games over that period, compared to 271 for Napoli, 249 for Juventus, 214 for Inter and 210 for Atalanta.
Radio Rossonera then looked closer at the reasons for missing matches, finding Napoli were worse hit by COVID (55 games), compared to Milan and Inter (38), Juventus (37) and Atalanta (11).
Identifying non-muscular injuries, and therefore those that were traumatic, sprains, inflammations, tendon, ligament or bone issues, Milan were back on top with 152 matches missed.
Atalanta were next on 128, Inter 110, Napoli 102 and Juventus only 55.
The injury that is most considered ‘avoidable’ in sport is muscular and again Milan stood head and shoulders above the rest on that score.
Their players missed 187 games due to muscular injuries, compared to 157 for Juventus, 114 Napoli, just 71 Atalanta and Inter a measly 66.
The mirror image with Scudetto winners Inter does show a massive difference, as Milan had 41 muscular injuries during that period compared to 22 for Inter.
The Rossoneri had 33 different muscular injuries, whereas Inter had only 14.
Where Stefano Pioli’s medical staff has questions to answer is with regards to the type of injury, as the Radio Rossonera study showed an extraordinary 52 per cent of muscular injuries at Milan are related to the flexor.
This was 20 different injuries involving 15 individual players, between them missing 97 matches.
Another 21 per cent of the muscular damage was to the calf.
🚨 EMERGENZA INFORTUNI MILAN – L’ANALISI DI RADIO ROSSONERA 🚨
È online lo studio sugli infortuni in casa #Milan.
Una grande raccolta dati da settembre 2020, con tabelle e grafici, analisi delle prestazioni atletiche e comparazioni tra le big della SerieA https://t.co/3jOx09rQbb— Radio Rossonera (@RadioRossonera) December 16, 2021
Did the study account for age?
Also, I am dubious about Inter‘s low numbers, as Sensi and Sanchez alone seem to have missed a season’s worth of games, just between the two of them.
Those are shocking numbers. We all knew something was very wrong at Milan but this just shines a new light to it.
Milan is the youngest team between them, there shouldn’t be any problems related to age. There’s something really wrong here and somebody needs to answer for, otherwise this will clearly keep happening forever and we will win nothing.
We’re simply never going to be able to win titles with this many injuries.
Forget transfers. We need to sort out injuries ASAP.
I am not a Milan fan but seriously like Juventus just go and buy some better doctors in the transfer window. That is a priority.
We need a new Milan Lab before we need a new stadium…
Their players missed 187 games due to muscular injuries, compared to 157 for Juventus, 114 Napoli, just 71 Atalanta and Inter a measly 66.
Could this be related to high intensity training at Juve and Milan?
I remember many players who joined Juve commenting that they have never worked as hard at any other club.
I think Milan should have changed their medical staff before start this season
Atalanta play and probably train with the most intensity yet they have almost as few muscular injuries as Inter. That’s not it, otherwise all Liverpool and City players have to be injured all the time.
Surely the medics at Milan already know this so the question is what are they doing about it?