Two Manchester United players past and present named among most five injured footballers

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Many of Manchester United’s players have struggled with injuries over the past decade – and some have endured particularly cruel luck.

This has gone back years, back to when Louis van Gaal was in charge and United regularly seemed to have an injury crisis.

This has at times provided opportunities for players like Marcus Rashford to step up – while others battle away on the treatment table.

Two Manchester United players’ fortunes have been among the worst in European football, a study has shown.

Top five injured players of the past decade named

A study by Dutch researchers Inderpender looked at footballers across Europe’s top five leagues who were born in 1980 onwards, to look at how much game time they had missed due to injury in their careers.

Based on data from UEFA, FIFA and Transfermarkt, the study found the top five most frequently injured players, and two of them played for Manchester United.

One of them still does, kind of…

1. Thomas Vermaelen (Belgium): 258 games missed due to injury
2. Arjen Robben (Netherlands): 238 games missed due to injury
3. Marcos Rojo (Argentina): Missed 217 games due to injury
4. Phil Jones (England): Missed 217 matches through injury
5. Jack Wilshere (England): Missed 214 matches through injury

Marcos Rojo was released by Manchester United in January 2021. He re-signed with Boca Juniors, where he has also been impacted by injuries.

He suffered a torn ACL earlier this year and is expected to be out of action until May 2023 at the earliest, Transfermarkt report.

As for Phil Jones, he is still on Manchester United’s books, and continually adding to his list. The above data claims he has missed the same number of games as Rojo. This will imminently increase – and he should surpass Robben too by the end of this season.

Jones has not played a single game for United this season. The current nature of his injury is unclear. His contract expires in June 2023, bringing a curtain down on his long association with the club.