Football
Premier League braces for record ACL injuries with ten players already out in 2024/25
Vyom Chaud left his IT job to follow his love for soccer. He has been writing about the beautiful game for the last 6 years contributing articles to The Daily Mail, Vocal, Fan Sided and many other publications. He can spin stories with numbers and thinks data is beautiful. An avid Arsenal fan, he spends most of his time dissecting the nuances of the game. He has played football, cricket and bton at an amateur level.
Get to know Vyom Chaudhary betterPublished20 Feb 2025
A growing number of injuries in professional football has raised an alarm this season. The trend is also visible in the Premier League, in which ten players have already suffered ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries during the 2024-25 season. As per the comparison put together by Sportscasting.co.uk, the ongoing season is headed towards a record number of ACL injuries.
Lisandro Martinez tenth Premier League player to suffer ACL in 2024/25
As Lisandro Martinez suffered a season-ending ACL injury against Crystal Palace on February 2, he became the tenth player to suffer a similar injury in the Premier League this season.
With about one-third of the ongoing season left, the situation is headed towards a record-breaking number. As per the data available on Premier Injuries, the current record stands at 12. We witnessed 12 ACL injuries each in 2012-13, 2015-16, and 2016-17 seasons, as per the data which dates back to the 2012-13 season.
However, the number of ACL injuries per season ranged from 5 to 9 from 2017-18 to 2022-23. The last season saw a sudden uptick in injuries throughout major football leagues. In the Premier League, a total of 11 ACL injuries occurred in 2023-24, the highest since 2016-17.
Worryingly, the trend has continued this season, as ten players have already been ruled out for the season with ACL injuries. One can only hope that this surge in injuries is only a blip, not a trend that might get even worse in the coming seasons.
The recent uptick in injuries has led to a debate regarding the football schedule, which is getting busier with every ing season. When injuries started to pile up last season, a lot of blame was put on the winter World Cup in 2022, which led to a smaller summer break for players ahead of the 2023-24 season. This was further followed by the summer of 2024, which witnessed two major regional international tournaments in Copa America and Euro Championships.
With the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup scheduled for the summer of 2025, the participating players would inevitably be deprived of a proper summer break again.
With no respite in the footballing schedule in sight, the footballing world might have to get used to an increasing number of injuries in the seasons.