Men’s European Football Injury Index 2024/25
Premier League injury costs top £1bn as Europe-wide total nears £3bn mark
Welcome to the fifth edition of our award-winning Men’s European Football Injury Index
This edition examines the five-year injury trends across Europe’s top five men’s leagues, before focusing on the 2024/25 season, with a dedicated chapter on the impact of newly expanded FIFA Club World Cup 2025™.
This year’s report underscores the ever-increasing physical demands on elite players.
We’ve seen an evolution in this year’s report in injury count and associated cost, which echoes current debates around enhancing player protection within the game. We hope the report can serve as a valuable resource for players, clubs and governing bodies to navigate these debates and make informed decisions about the future of the game.
What's included in this year's report?
- A five-year review of injury counts, severity and costs
- Detailed analysis on specific clubs
- Relative performance analysis – how injuries affect a club’s performance
- Minutes-to-injuries analysis
- The impact of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™
Key takeaways
For comprehensive analysis, download the full report.
Premier League: 5-year insights
A review of the past five seasons reveals 22,596 injuries occurred across Europe’s top five men’s leagues, costing clubs £2.97bn (€3.45bn). Premier League clubs account for nearly a quarter of these injuries (24%), with over £1bn paid out in salaries to injured players, at an average of £237.78m (€275.83m) per season.
Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United all recorded above-average injury costs in each of the last five seasons, with Manchester United incurring the highest cost figure of the four (£154.51m/€179.23m).
Impact of the FIFA Club World Cup™
Between June-July 2025, during FIFA Club World Cup™, we can see that all nine clubs from the top five men’s European leagues incurred a combined total of 25 injuries. This represents an identical figure compared to the same period in the previous year. However, by extending that time frame to the three months following the tournament, we see two significant outliers:
- Between June and October 2025, Chelsea - the FIFA Club World Cup™ winners - suffered the most injuries of any European team who participated in the tournament, 23. This represents a 44% increase compared to the same period in the 2023/24 season.
- Manchester City, who made the round of 16, incurred no injuries during the competition; however, they recorded 22 injuries in the three months that followed (August to October 2025).
2024/25 season insights
Despite an increase in the number of injuries recorded in the 2024/25 season across the top five men’s European Leagues (+27), there is a greater than proportionate decrease in costs incurred by top clubs (-€160.48m/-£138.34m), compared to 2023/24.
Premier League:
Last season, whilst Manchester United recorded their worst league finishing position (15th), they also recorded their lowest injury count figure across the five-year period.
Premier League champions, Liverpool, recorded a vastly lower injury cost (€14.73m /£12.69m) relative to third-placed Manchester City (€41.22m/£35.53m), potentially due to a lower rate of long-term injuries to the club’s highest paid players.
Across Europe: 5-year insights
Outside of the Premier League, only three clubs - Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid - registered injury costs of over €40m (£34.48m) in a single season, in last five years.
Whilst Bundesliga clubs have consistently recorded the highest rates of injury across each season, data shows that they come at a notably lower cost – an average of €115.95m (£99.96m) per season.
Over the five years, Real Madrid incurred a total injury cost of €168.76m (£145.48m), compared to rival Barcelona’s €122.99m (£106.03m) cost.
Paris Saint-Germain is the only French men’s team to record above-average injury figures in each of the last five seasons - incurring a total of nearly 300 injuries during this period.
In Italy, Juventus and AC Milan were the two teams to incur above average injury counts – with the former unable to win the domestic title in any of the previous five years.
Young players continue to feel the strain
Amid further concerns about the number of minutes young footballers are expected to play, the report analysed injury instances per age group with an emphasis on the susceptibility of U-21s to injury:
- The five most ‘injury-prone’ scenarios, where players were involved in a minimum of 300 minutes of football, all involved U-21 players.
- Premier League forwards under the age of 21 sustained an injury every 120 minutes of competitive domestic football.
- In 2024/25, players under the age of 21 in Ligue 1 suffered the most severe injuries. They were sidelined, on average, for 47 days per injury – an eight-day increase on the previous season
For more analysis, download the full report.
