A study found that players from Europe’s top five teams were injured eight days more often in the months after the World Cup in Qatar, which happened in the middle of the season last year.
The insurance company Howden released its European Football Injury Index for the 2022–23 season a year after the World Cup. They did this by looking into how the high number of games last season affected the health and safety of players.
The study found that in October 2022, 88 injuries kept players out of action for an average of 11.35 days before the tournament. That number rose to 19.41 days in January 2023 after the tournament.
Ankle injuries got 170% worse, calf/shin injuries got 200% worse, and hamstring injuries got 130% worse.
“We’ve seen clearly that the staging of a men’s World Cup in a European winter led to players facing an extra eight days on the sidelines in the second half of the season, compared to the first,” James Burrows, Howden’s sport director, said.
“The impact was consistent across domestic leagues such as the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga.”
Burrows also said that the severer injuries made the financial effect rise by almost 30%, from €553.62 million ($603.83 million) to €704.89 million across Europe’s top five leagues.
“The data is clear in demonstrating a trend,” he said.
We hope that our research and analysis will give Europe’s top clubs more information as they continue to talk to the game’s governing bodies about making the domestic and international calendars more aligned and fixing the problem of too many fixtures. The study found that 3,985 injuries happened in Europe’s top five leagues during the 2022–23 season.
23.6% of players from the English Premier League and 14.8% of players from the German Bundesliga went to the World Cup. These leagues had the biggest effect on illness rates.
“In the two months after the tournament, Bundesliga players… suffered 46 injuries, compared to 49 in the English Premier League suggesting that the extended winter break in Germany following the men’s World Cup proved to have minimal effect,” the study stated.
Earlier this year, the international players’ union FIFPRO said that almost half of the players at the World Cup were mentally exhausted or getting more tired because of the unprecedented number of games.
About 44% of players were physically and mentally more tired in January than at other times of the year, and 53% thought they were more likely to get hurt.
£1 is equal to €0.9168
