Danny Wright

Tue 28 November 2023 11:40, UK

Tottenham won’t only be ruing the cost of injuries on the pitch but they’ll also be fretting about how much it will be costing them in the pocket, too.

After an unbeaten 10-game run at the start of the season, Ange Postecoglou’s side have slipped down to fifth in the Premier League with three defeats in their last three outings.

Despite the slump in form, Spurs fans don’t seem to be in too much of a panic, nor is there any sign of a mutiny against the Aussie boss, who’s made himself extremely popular since arriving in North London in the summer.

Spurs’ current on-field issues are more than certainly down to the injury crisis that’s swept across the club with Postecoglou having to name a squad of players that lacked James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Richarlison, Ivan Perisic, Ryan Sessegnon, Manor Solomon, Pape Matar Sarr and Alfie Whiteman due to injury as they lost 2-1 to Aston Villa at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday (26 November). Cristian Romero and Yves Bissouma were also both suspended for the game while Rodrigo Bentancur, who’s not long returned from a long-term issue, was forced off in the first half after a horrific challenge by Matty Cash.

The injury issues are continuing to pile up and due to this on Sunday, Postecoglou had to name a makeshift backline, a weakened midfield and an attack that lacked a cutting edge.

Emerson Royal, Ben Davies, Giovani Lo Celso and Bryan Gil probably wouldn’t have started if it wasn’t for the current selection crisis but the issues run deeper than just what happens on the pitch because there’s a financial cost to injuries too.

According to insurance group Howden Group Holdings, the cost of injuries in the Premier League last season was a staggering £255.41million, which was a £70.84million increase on the cost from the season before.

Across Europe’s top five leagues, the overall injury cost rose by almost 30 per cent with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar midway through the campaign potentially playing a role.

But what contributes towards these costs?

In the world of Premier League football, the wages of medical staff plus the cost of equipment, medicine and procedures are most likely negligible. However, everything does add up.

What is likely to dwarf those costs are how much money a player is earning while he’s sidelined.

In May 2022, The Telegraph reported that Perisic is earning £180,000-a-week at Tottenham and on 20 September, it was reported by BBC Sport that he’s set to miss the rest of the season with an ACL injury.

Between the time the Croatian was ruled out in late September until, presumably, when his contract expires at the end of June, Perisic will have earned around £7.2million for being injured.

Jason McKenna, who is the head of content at Premier Injuries, told Analytics FC in June that last season in the Premier League, the average cost of an ACL injury was £1.1million (£9.5million in total), which is “incredibly high” in terms of cost-per-injury.

Spurs – hopefully – won’t have an injury cost as high as Perisic’s this season but all the other injuries are adding up in more ways than one.

Maddison reportedly earns £170,000-a-week [Telegraph] at Spurs. He’s been out since going off in the 4-1 defeat to Chelsea on 6 November and isn’t expected to return to action until 14 January [Premier Injuries]. That means he’ll be paid £1.7million in wages while Tottenham will also have the foot the bill for his medical costs and continue to struggle on the pitch without his playmaking brilliance.

It’s not easy to find out how much a lot of Spurs’ players are playing each week but if Maddison’s mid-term injury lay-off is a cost of almost £2million, you can see how the numbers really start to stack up.

It’s hard to say how Tottenham can put a pin in their injury woes but signing Maddison always came with the risk that he’s prone to a spell on the sidelines.

In some cases, it’s just down to bad luck because, for example, Perisic has never had an injury that’s kept him sidelined for more than 56 days in his whole career [transfermarkt]. He’s already been out for 69 days for Spurs, meaning that his longest-ever spell out of action has come in North London this season despite him being a 34-year-old with over 500 appearances for club and country.

The finger could also be pointed at Postecoglou because of his all-action style of play and his team selection.

The Times reported on 9 October, a few weeks before the issues all began against Chelsea, that Postecoglou had only made five changes to his starting line-up in the Premier League up until that point, which was the lowest in the league.

Less rotation surely means more workload for players in the starting line-up and some of those players (Maddison, van de Ven, Richarlison and Sarr) are now sidelined.

Tottenham are splurging money currently on their injury crisis but one thing that cannot be accounted for is how much it will cost them in the future.

Is this injury crisis going to kill their hopes of getting back into the Champions League or winning any silverware? That’s when the true cost of these injuries really can go through the roof.

In other Tottenham news, Richard Keys told this Spurs player to “calm down” despite being brilliant.